"And this is very interesting, the Hartman driver is catching up with Mario! He has the fastest pace in the race at the moment. Can he somehow steal the win from Ferrari?!"
Mario knows that he needs to pick up the pace to outrun the HA22 that is hunting him down. The two cars raced through the circuit, as Mario relentlessly defended his position from the incoming HA22. With their tires wearing out, the outcome of the race will be decided by the final pit stop cycle.
For this final pit stop cycle, the HA22 driver decides to make a bold move, and executes an undercut, pitting a few laps before Mario makes his pit stop.
"Look at this, the Hartman driver is coming in early! This is an interesting strategy from the Hartman team, but will it succeed though?"
Coming in, the Hartman crew swiftly changed its tires in exactly 2 seconds, before rejoining the track.
Mario doubted whether the Hartman driver could succeed in doing the undercut, as it gives him more time to pick up the pace in the next few laps.
"You've made a big mistake. Now I have plenty of time to increase my race pace and set some fast laps!"
A few laps later, It was Mario's turn to do his pit stop.
"And now Mario is going into the pits! His stop will determine the outcome of the race, and also the result of Hartman's strategy!"
In a flash, fresh tires were installed onto the car, and Mario swiftly rejoined the track. But when rejoining, he was shocked by the sight of the HA22 in front of him.
"Mario rejoins the track, but the Hartman driver has passed him! The undercut has worked big time! The Hartman driver takes the lead with 10 laps to go!"
"What?! How?! Why am I now 2nd to that Hartman? My team's pit stops felt slow these days… Is that guy some sort of blue ghost or something?"
Observers are astonished as the unknown replacement driver is now within a shot of victory in Hartman's first-ever race.
"Who's that guy in the Hartman car?"
"No idea, but he's close to winning the race!"
"It won't be easy, as it now endures a difficult task of holding back Mario's Ferrari!"
Emiko and Kanae overheard their conversation while continuing to search for Fumiko.
"How's Mario doing in the race?" Emiko questioned.
"He's in 2nd place."
"Second?! Who's in the lead?"
"A-A Hartman driver! He's holding him back!"
Neither of them could believe what happened, as they saw Mario weaving left, right, and center to find space to overtake, but the Hartman car relentlessly defended its position.
"H-How?! It shouldn't be that hard for the Ferrari to outrun the Hartman car!" A baffled Kanae said.
"Yeah… The Ferrari is the fastest car on the grid after all! Come on, Mario… you can do it! Pass him!"
"This is amazing! The Hartman car is valiantly defending from the attacking Ferrari, as we entered the final lap of the race!" The commentator said with excitement, as the 58th and final lap of the race had begun. This is the last chance for Mario to pass the Hartman car.
"For me to capitulate to a slower car, It's the biggest disgrace for a champion. I can't afford to lose to a car as slow as the Hartman car! This race is still mine!"
And so, corner after corner, Mario tried to find space to overtake, but was unable to do so.
"Mario is trying so hard to find a possible gap to pass, but the Hartman driver holds his line!"
Entering the very last corner, Mario flickers into the inside of the Hartman driver, clipping the apex of the corner to gain more speed on the runout to the straight. But the Hartman driver continued to battle on the racing line on the run to the chequered flag. The two cars ran so close to one another that a piece of paper can barely fit in between the cars. It was intense, it was fierce, and it will be decided by a matter of milliseconds.
"And Mario darted through the inside! They're side by side, toe-to-toe, and they nearly touched each other! Who's gonna win it?! Its-Its- OH MY GOD! It's the Hartman driver! He beats Mario to the line! Oh my, oh my, oh my! What an incredible finish in Australia!" shouted the commentator with ecstasy and delight as Hartman achieved their first-ever win in their first-ever race.
The entire Hartman team goes berserk with delight, as they celebrate in the pit lane. Whilst the Hartman team partied in the pits, the F1 world was both stunned and astonished, witnessing the Ferrari being defeated soundly by an unknown driver stepping in for Harry Matthews. Neither Mario, Emiko, Kanae, the Ferrari team, or anyone involved could believe it.
"..... I'm… beaten… H-How could this have happened? To fall short of victory to a lower midfield car is humiliating. But… What the hell was that speed? Something wasn't right…"
After the cooldown lap, the top 3 cars, Mario Raggazi, Lorin Newton, and the unknown driver, entered parc ferme just below the podium. There their respective pit crews congratulated their drivers for what they've achieved during the race. Observers looked on as Mario emerged from his car and went to his pit crew with a sigh of shock and dismay, while officials inspected the car for any suspicious or illegal parts.
"What happened out there, Mario?"
"I-I don't know. That guy beat me by the undercut and valiantly held his line everywhere I went. I had a strange feeling that something was odd with that car."
"Same here… Well, we would have to wait for the inspection results tonight, but none of us know who that driver is…"
"Neither do i. Who is that and How the hell can he beat me?"
Later, the winning driver emerged from the Hartman HA22 car, as she walked to the ecstatic Hartman pit crew. After being hoisted in the air by the crew, the driver unhinged the helmet strap, ready to reveal its face to the world. Mario and the others looked on, as the helmet was unworn, and all that's left is for the facial cap to be unworn as well, but the eyes of the driver are now visible, revealing blue eyes. Slowly, the driver pulled out the white facial cap, and the F1 world was shocked as they saw the face of the race winner for the very first time ever.
It reveals a fairly petite woman, possibly in her early to mid-20s, with dark blue navy hair with blinding bangs to her right eye and a long braid cascading through the left side of her neck and down to the chest. Mario and the others in parc ferme are shocked beyond belief, as she received a cigarette from one of her pit crews, and lit it on-site, she inhales for a short while, before exhaling smoke from her mouth.
"EHHHHH?!!!!" Emiko and Kanae are shocked to see that it's Fumiko Aozora that was driving the Hartman car all along.
"Well, that was a fun race, Mario," she said to a shocked Mario.
"... yeah, that was some great racing out there. Good job… By the way, what's your name?" Mario replied.
"Fumiko Aozora."
"Fumiko… well, I gotta say that is an excellent performance. Also, props for nailing the undercut there."
"Thanks."
The three drivers went to a room behind the podium, where Mario and Fumiko continued to interact with each other, whereas Lorin Newton also congratulated Fumiko's achievements.
"Hey, girl, that's one hell of an achievement. Congrats!" Lorin said.
"Thanks…" Fumiko said gently while lighting up another cigarette.
"Time's changing isn't it… Over the decades, open-wheel racing has been an exclusively men's game. It's always been like that, Isn't it?"
"Yeah." as Fumiko exhales another puff of smoke.
"By the way, have you done any form of racing before?"
"Yeah, just national GT racing. Nothing much."
"I see." Shortly after, the announcer calls the three drivers to the podium.
"Oh, there's the call. Let's get out there."
"Sure…"
The three drivers then went to the podium, while their teams congratulated them from the parc ferme below. Shortly after, the Japanese national anthem was played, followed by the German national anthem. Then, the drivers were given their respective trophies before spraying their champagne for celebration, as the sun began to set on Melbourne, Australia, thus ending the first Grand Prix of the season.