only lovers in the dark by goldenviper

explicit | george russell/max verstappen | george russell/toto wolff | multi-chaptered

when george finally gets the chance to fight for a championship, he soon realizes there is more to winning than being the quickest one. while he strives for perfection, the pressure keeps mounting on and off track and the lines start to blur—between loyalty and ambition, restraint and appetite; who george is supposed to be and who he can become. now, he is forced to confront how far he’s willing to go—and what it means to be both the hunter and the prey.

with monaco i famously had a breakdown before the weekend had even started and refused to watch anything - my stomach was so twisted into knots i could not eat at all on sunday and i wasn't even actually seeing anything (to this day i still do not know what went down) i just knew it would be horrible.

with spain i had a feeling things would get better but not too better - i knew it would be a shift for george though. when he got pole i dared to think maybe he could win but in my heart i knew it wasn't meant to be.

austria was the first race in a long time i stopped having that terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach - each race weekend before that felt like being hunted for sport. but my gut was telling me austria would be kind to george and he would regain the confidence he had lost. i knew it was exactly what he needed at the right time.

for silverstone i had a similar feeling that i didn't quite dare to believe. if i was honest with myself i didn't feel like he would do horribly and began to slowly but cautiously harbor some hope - but i knew it wouldn't be the fairytale ending some people might wish for george. my initial feeling was he would do shit in the sprint thus bringing 63s into a panic again and the george is washed allegations - but i thought the race would be kinder to him. i wanted so badly to believe in the possibility that he might finally win his home race but something did not feel right... i just can't explain it. either way, i knew he would do better than past years. it was crazy because i wasn't actually watching the race so i had no idea how dire things were for him throughout but i would've still believed things were going to turn around for him.... and they did.