"P2," Elias said. The controlled voice had a thread of something else running through it now. "That's P2, Leo. Sector 2 is yours. Full lap is two-tenths off Rossi."
Leo drove the cooling curve out of Turn 1 without reacting.
P2 was not where he was going to finish.
This was the first lap, otherwise known as the conservative one. The one designed to show the paddock just enough to keep them from writing him off — but not enough to make Rossi change his plan, not enough to make Prema run an extra timed lap, not enough to let anyone see what Sector 1 looked like when he stopped holding back.
He rolled through Turn 3 slowly and watched the timing screen on the bridge above the track update again in real time. Moreau had just gone P3.
Vega had dropped to P5 after a scrappy run through the chicane. Berg had gone P8 after running a solid lap, nothing more.
Below Leo's name, the rest of the field was scrambling.
Above it, Rossi sat alone in first place, comfortable, unaware.
