After Luca’s pit stop, Victor’s was due. But not yet.

The race was now a comedy of errors into a third of its distance, full of disharmony and irregularities as cars entered the pit lane, some for routine service, and a few like Jimmy Damgaard, reacting to the strategy shifts triggered by Luca’s early stop and the earlier incidents.

The order shuffled constantly, positions changing not always on track, but through the timing screens. It was one of those phases where a race could quietly be won or lost without a single overtake.

Usually, this was when Victor would be looking toward his own box, but with Luca tumbling down the order after his 14.6 sec pit run and rejoining around P7, Trampos Racing couldn’t afford to have Luca swallowed by the pack while his tires were still low temp and the car systems still stabilizing after the reboot. Every position mattered—for Luca’s championship and for the constructor points. So, Victor’s stop was put on hold.

Adding to that, he wasn’t just racing his own race anymore; he was a barrier.

In the mathematical reality of Formula 1, it was Victor’s job to anchor the midfield, thus preventing his teammate from tumbling any further down the order while Luca waited for his fresh rubber to find its bite. It sounded simple when said over the radio, but it was anything but simple on the streets of Baku. Victor had to measure gaps, watch mirrors, keep pace, manage his own race, and now also think about Luca’s recovery—all at once.

And there was another problem.

His tires.

The JYX-81 was a masterpiece of aero and cornering, but Victor was still learning its darker habits. Unlike his previous chassis, which he could balance on a knife-edge for twenty laps, this car had a voracious appetite for its rear tires! The 81 generated downforce differently, and if you pushed it a hint too far, it punished the tires quickly. The high traction of the circuit chewed through the rubber lap after lap, bringing a certain greasy feeling. Now, the compounds that were responsive earlier were starting to slide slightly through traction zones, forcing Victor to be gentler on the throttle out of slow corners when he had rivals everywhere.

So he adjusted.

Over the next two laps, Victor began consciously managing his tires. Into Turn 1, he braked slightly earlier, not enough to lose time, but enough to avoid locking the fronts. Through the long traction zones, he squeezed the throttle instead of stamping on it, letting the car settle before unleashing full power. In the fast sections, he avoided aggressive steering inputs, keeping the car smooth, flowing, and minimizing scrub.

It was an exhausting mental load. He was constantly toggling through his steering wheel displays, monitoring the rising core temperatures of his tires while simultaneously tracking the gap to Max Addams.

**Gap behind 1.2. Careful**

Victor checked his mirrors on the straightaway.

Him.

He needed to keep the car behind busy, keep them fighting him so they couldn’t focus on his teammate. That’s what a great Formula driver does. So, he pushed slightly in Sector 2—not to escape, but to control the pace.

Another lap passed, and the tires were complaining more than ever.

But finally—

**Luca’s into P6, Vic. He’s purple in Sector 1**

**Box next lap**

Phew!

Meanwhile, Luca had gotten back his race. While Victor was fighting a losing battle against physics, Luca took it to school.

By the time he exited the pit cycle and completed his out-lap, the tires were already coming alive beneath him. Usually, an out-lap in Baku is a treacherous affair of weaving and brake-gliding, but Luca was back in the hunt faster than the team predicted, and most importantly, faster than Victor could afford to wait. If he had taken any longer, Victor’s sets would have disintegrated under the pressure, and the pack would have swallowed them both.

Luca’s secret weapon was one of the latest rewards from his system, earned after his legendary performance in Germany.

[Skill: Warm Rubber]

[Description: Warm Rubber allows the host to rapidly generate and stabilize tire temperatures during the out-lap. By optimizing friction and brake-to-rim heat transfer, this skill brings the rubber to its peak operating range within a shorter expected time.]

Normally, Formula One drivers warmed their tires through a combination of weaving, aggressive braking, and controlled acceleration. They practically have to act kind of crazy, zigzagging slightly on straights to build surface temp, dragging the brakes to transfer heat into the rims, and spinning the rear tires out of corners to generate friction without destroying the rubber. It usually takes a portion of a lap to reach the Goldilocks zone of grip, and a maximum of three laps to fully bring tires into the optimal operating window, especially on a street circuit like Baku, where there is track inconsistency.

However, <Warm Rubber> changed the math for Luca. Although the skill was currently at a low level, it made a noticeable difference. Instead of the usual struggle to find traction at slow corners, Luca felt his softs bite into the street as if they had already been running for three prior laps. It saved time, positions, and Victor, too.

Luca also had to give credit to <Silent Restore> for mending the wire degradation so he could continue his race peacefully. At first, he hadn’t been sure it would work. It was an internal, subtle issue, the kind that usually grew worse over time, not better, and Luca feared it may not be in the scope of his skill. But it was. All he had to do was give it time, reduce his mental web, and narrow his focus to the essentials.

Luca was also careful not to fix it too far.

On the telemetry screens back in the garage, the engineers noticed the magical change. Systems that had shown subtle irregularities were now returning to normal operating ranges. They didn’t understand why, but they weren’t going to complain during a race. If they had seen a complete miraculous recovery after a known wiring issue, the post-race investigation would be a nightmare Luca couldn’t explain.

Sometimes imperfection is truth.

Now, for Luca...

The relief he felt was enormous. For a while, he had believed <Silent Restore> only worked on external damage. But this proved it could work on internal mechanical issues too, in its own strange way.

This realization was comforting and terrifying, because it assured Luca he was much safer from mechanical problems—but it also reminded him of the scale of his power.

How far could he push himself?

And just how close could he come to self-destruction just to stay ahead of his rivals?