"Good luck today, Daniella," Toto Wolff approached the Red Bull driver and shook her hand.

"Thanks," she smiled. She was all suited up and ready to get in the car just like all the other nineteen drivers. "But I just feel like today's race is going to be.."

"Chaotic?"

"Yeah," she nervously nodded.

"It will be fine," he smiled. "You and Lewis just have a fair race, don't worry about anything else," and by anything, Daniella knew he meant the championship. He gave a quick smile and pat on her back before leaving to take his seat at the Mercedes garage.

Daniella was too nervous to notice that both George and Max were glaring at the interaction she just had.

Lewis and she exchanged a quick nod before both the championship contenders got in their cars.

***

As predicted the race was chaos from the beginning, yellow flags after yellow flags were waved. Daniella tried her best to overtake Lewis but failed, she only managed to do so after the restart after the red flag and Max was quick to move up to P2 making Lewis lose his position.

"You know what to do," Christian said to Max.

"yeah," Max replied as he continued defending his position against Lewis.

Meanwhile, Daniella's full concentration was on leading the race and on the track. She is well aware that one mistake will cost her a lot.

Max yelled in frustration as Lewis did manage to overtake him and there were only a few laps to go. He really hoped it didn't come to this. But once again Christian's voice rang in his ears, he knows what to do to help his teammate.

He gave everything to get close to the Mercedes to overtake it but when he realized it will be difficult to do so on time he did what he was asked to do.

"So umm..Max got a time penalty," Christian informed Daniella.

"What? Why? What happened?" she asked.

"We will talk about it after the race."

A small part of her knew exactly what happened as she knows her teammate very well but it was not the correct time to dwell on it.

As the Red Bull begins the final lap everyone was almost sure that Daniella will win. Even her heart was beating really fast. The chequered flag was not far away.

"What the..." Daniella gasped as she felt the car lose its balance.

Christian took off his headphone and threw them away as the front tire of Daniella's car blew up, slowing her down and of course, Lewis drove past her.

Daniella stilled tried to cross the chequered flag on time but her car no longer had the pace and Max had no choice but to drive ahead and Valtteri followed to get the third position. Only after that, she managed to reach the flag and finish fourth.

"It's okay Dani," Nate tried to comfort her. "We still have the last race."

Daniella didn't respond as she parked the car and silently sat there for a couple of minutes, trying to catch her breath and thinking about the last lap.

Meanwhile, Lewis was pissed at Max for making contact and trying to get him out of the race but in the end, it was all for nothing as Daniella failed to win.

Even though Red Bull managed to get a podium the team was not happy, but Mercedes on the other hand, was celebrating like they already won the championship as now both Lewis and Daniella's scores were even and the last race will decide the winner.

"Hey, you drove really well today," Sebastian came over. "What happened was out of your control."

"I know," Daniella huffed as she got out of the car and took off her helmet. "But I..I never knew it was going to hurt so much."

"Speaking from experience, it will only make you tougher and a better driver," Sebastian smiled as he gave her a hug.

Daniella looked over at Lando who finished at P10 and managed to get one point. He too had a tough race as he went from P7 to P15 and managed to climb up to only P10. He and Daniella shared the same look of disappointment and defeat and both looked exhausted.

***

"Please tell me Max didn't receive the penalty because he tried to take Lewis out of the race," Daniella approached the team principal.

His silence was enough for her to confirm her assumption.

"Are you two crazy?" she scolded. "That could have ended badly."

"We had no other choice," Christian defended.

"I don't want to win like this."

***

The podium was awkward to say the least. Both Lewis and Max were giving each other the cold shoulder with the occasional glare. As soon as the trophies were handed Max left the podium with his trophy and champagne which only added more to the awkwardness.

He immediately knew Daniella was angry as soon as he spotted her.

"Though race huh?" he tried to lighten the mood.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she snapped. "Do you even realize how dangerous and risky that was?"

"Of course I did, I am not an idiot," he nodded.

"I am not sure about that idiot part," she scoffed. "You both could have been hurt, injured, or worse."

"I knew the risks Dani," he rolled his eyes and looked away, getting annoyed.

Daniella took a deep breath as she tried to remain calm.

"Max, listen to me..," she calmly said, making him look at her. "The championship is not worth risking any lives..not yours, or mine or Lewis'."

Max's lips slightly parted at her statement.

"You really think I will even be able to celebrate or even hold the trophy if I knew that my teammate took out my competition and that it wasn't a fair win or that you or any of my friends get injured in the process while pulling a stunt like you did today?"

"No," Max mumbled and shook his head, feeling guilty and realizing how opposite Daniella and the team's thoughts are. "I just wanted to..I just don't want Mercedes to win everything. They got you and now they might win the championship and this team will be left with nothing."

"Don't say that," Daniella tried to calm him down.

"It's true," he argued back. "I don't think I would have pulled that stunt if you had at least decided to stay here as my teammate."

"You know why I am leaving Max."

"Yeah..but if you had told me what was going on I would have helped you and everything would have been fine."

**********

A/N:  Does anyone feel bad that Dani didn't win?

Do you think she deserve to win the championship?

Thoughts about Max trying to take out Lewis so Dani could win?

Now to the actual race- I didn't like the race track or the race. The track is not safe, sure it is the second fastest  track on the calendar and looks good at night with all the lights but it is not safe. 5 DNFs and so many yellow flags. Although the end result was exciting, now both Lewis and Max are tied and I am sure the last race will be even more chaotic. But I feel so bad to Esteban, he deserved that P3, but I am happy for Valtteri too. And Toto once again made the meme pages.

What are you thoughts about what went down between Lewis and Max and the penalty?