Leo moved his eyes up the top half of the board.
His own name sat in P2 just below Rossi. The purple notation beside his sector times. He had made the cleanest Sector 2 of the session by a margin that had made the broadcast team stop mid-sentence.
P2.
In a car that had spent two seasons in the bottom five of the constructors' standings.
The dark amusement arrived. Cold and settled in his head. He let it exist without moving his face.
---
Rossi's time came through.
It arrived on the timing board the way fast times always did — quietly, without ceremony, the numbers simply replacing the previous ones as if the previous ones had never been important.
[1. A. Rossi (Prema) — 1:27.5]
Two-tenths faster than Leo. Purple across all three sectors. The Italian had delivered the lap that a three-time series frontrunner delivers when someone puts a number on the board that makes them feel the edge of their territory.
The grandstands registered it. The broadcast team registered it.
