The boards above the garages were updating in sequence. Each team's timing screen showing the final Q3 classification as it locked. He passed the DAMS garage and saw Oscar Dubois standing at the pit wall, helmet in his hand, looking at the screen with the particular expression of a home crowd favourite who had just come fourth on his home circuit and understood that the story of the day was not about him.
Leo passed the ART garage.
Vega was already out of his car. The Spaniard stood beside his engineer with his race suit top unzipped, arms folded, looking at the timing screen with an expression that had moved past frustration into something harder.
He had put in the best lap of his career — a 1:27.1 that would have been pole in most other weekends of his F2 career.
In Q3 at Albert Park, it was P4.
He didn't look at the Arcadia car as it passed.
Leo didn't look at him.
