Nobody knew how Fluttershy EXP-21 was performing well, even Danger was slightly oblivious as to how she achieved two top-5 consective top 5 finishes, including a podium at Mystic Falls. But as Sunset Shimmer got ready for her lap, Danger went into inspect Fluttershy’s car. He found nothing to mentally note down as her car looked normal. When Sunset’s Mercedes finished her lap, Danger went back to his crew… and Crimsonia, telling her that he found nothing suspicious.
1st. Akula, Crimson Arrows-Mercedes, 1:24.887
2nd. Sonic Flash, Sonic GP, 1:24.913
3rd. DangerDean , Scuderia Ferrari-Danger Motorsport, 1:24.978
4th. Viral Velocity, Crimson Arrows-Mercedes, 1:25.046
5th. Aria Blaze, Scuderia Ferrari-Danger Motorsport, 1:25.147
6th. Fluttershy, Bentley M-Sport, 1:25.196
7th. Iris Dayspark, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, 1:25.326
8th. Sunset Shimmer, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, 1:25.468
9th. Oscura Galaxia, Red Bull Racing, 1:25.635
10th. Rarity, Renault Sport, 1:25.647
11th. Black Flame, Squadra Corse Lamborghini, 1:25.996
12th. Amy Firepetal, Sonic GP, 1:26.123
13th. Sayori Blitz, Renault Sport, 1:26.557
14th. Hatsune Soulblitz, Volkswagen, 1:26.686
15th. Sapphire Flame, ENVISION GP, 1:27.164
16th. Rainbow Dash, Aston Martin Cognizant, 1:27.535
17th. Lightning Dust, Aston Martin Cognizant, 1:27.835
18th. Pasadena Dragonstorm, Scuderia Galactica-Lamborghini, 1:28.567
19th. Cassandra Daybreaker, Volkswagen, 1:28.928
20th. Applejack, McLaren, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
21st. Jasmine Colddust, Bentley M-Sport, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
22nd. Starlight Glimmer, Red Bull Racing, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
23rd. Chandra Dawnsword, McLaren, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
24th. Caitlin Dragonsword, Scuderia Galactica-Lamborghini, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
25th. Shadina Nightsword, ENVISION GP, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
26th. Cadenza Spark, Squadra Corse Lamborghini, N/A (crashed in qualifying)
As grid lined up behind the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Safety Car for the upcoming 46 laps. Danger was a little puzzled because his friend back in Danger City, Sonic Flash from Sonic GP, qualified six hundreds faster than him. But he knows that race is more important than qualifying.
Then, just before the parade lap ended, Applejack’s McLaren spun off before turn 10. Applejack had to conceed her starting position, she felt emontionally gutted as she lined up 26th on the grid behind her teammate, Chandra Dawnsword. She was even behind the ENVISION GP of Shadina Nightsword.
It’s was now the start of the race and both Akula and Sonic Flash got good starts of the line. Danger got swamped by Viral and Aria at the start was being chased by Iris Dayspark into turn one. Turn 2 to 4 could be hotspot for drama and before the racers knew it, the Renault of Sayori Blitz was tagged and sent spinning by Sapphire Flame’s ENVISION. Sayori got going again but was now in 24th place behind Chandra Dawnsword.
On lap 4, the battle between Sonic Flash and Akula were in tight battle for the lead which started since the start of the race. With Viral occasionally joining in. Towards turn 9, Sonic slightly locked up which caused him to lose 2nd place to Viral.
The race was relative quiet as the 26 cars started to get a rhythm and Oscura had passed Sunset’s Mercedes at turn 6. Then, the drama continued on lap 7 as Black Flame’s Lamborghini remembered what happened at Diamond City and started to spew smoke from the engine. This was the second time Black Flame had to retire due to the engine losing the will to live. But because Black Flame’s Lamborghini was parked outside of the track, there was no real need to bring the yellow flags out.
Amy Firepetal had to swerve a little due to the plume of smoke which came from Black Flame’s car, she hoped her friend can bring a victory of Sonic GP.
Danger meanwhile, had been chasing down Aria and on lap 9, Danger passed Aria at turn 5. With Aria behind him, he set his sights on Viral and hopefully Sonic Flash and Akula who was still in an intense battle.
Oscura had overtaken the Mercedes of Iris Dayspark and was now on Fluttershy’s slipstream. She hoped that Fluttershy would make a mistake into turn 1 as both she and Oscura crossed the start-finish line to start lap 10.
But before she could wait for it, Sunset’s left rear wheel parted company with her Mercedes and forced Sunset to retire from the race. Thus bringing out the Safety Car and field bunched up.
The race restarted on lap 13 with Akula still defending from Sonic and Viral with Danger overtaking the Crimson Arrow at turn one. Sonic noticed that his friend was behind him and he knew that Danger was in his slipstream. His race engineer, Lukas Tailfire was hoping that the British Speedfreak didn’t do anything that might hinder his. But Danger’s not the sort of racing driver that would stupid things.
“Ok, Sonic, you are racing Danger behind as he caught Viral, you are racing him from behind.” Lukas reminded him.
“Do you think he might stop?” Sonic asked him.
“Probably with the half-way part, give or take a lap or two.” Lukas replied.
Crimsonia was hoping that Danger would overtake him on lap 14 but she had to tell him.
“Danger, don’t do anything stupid to Sonic, please, let’s get past him.” Crimsonia asked him.
“Crim, I know it’s Sonic who’s ahead of me… but come on! I got to have fun with him once in a while.” Danger comedically said.
“I know you want to, but please bring the car home.” Crimsonia said.
“I don’t think I should recommend F1 cars in my garage at my house, Crim. I recommend putting them at either Danger Motorsport HQ, or Maranello.” Danger replied.
While Danger was beginning his comedy show, Oscura was still gaining ground on Fluttershy’s Bentley which both of them 0.2 seconds apart from each other. Heading to turn 7, Oscura did a big lunge on the Bentley, but Fluttershy knew what she was planning and she blocked the Red Bull with only meters separating the two cars. Oscura tried again at turn 9 but Fluttershy denied any chance.
On lap 16, the battle between the Crimson Arrow of Akula, the Sonic GP of Sonic Flash and the Prancing Horse of Danger. The three headed to turn 5 and Danger, who had better corner exit speed overtook both Akula and Sonic!
Viral was about 9 seconds adrift from the top but she knew that all three would be making their pitstops. And before she knew it, all three of them pulled in for a new set of mediums and her 9 second gap was diminishing.
On lap 19, Oscura pulled in for softs and she rejoined only 1 second from the Sonic GP of Amy Firepetal who pitted for soft a lap eariler. 0.137 seconds behind Amy was Hatsune Soulblitz in the Volkswagen and when Oscura rejoined to start her 20th lap, Hatsune who was looking to pass Amy on the entrance to turn 1, collided with the Sonic GP and Hatsune stopped in the gravel trap, forcing her out of the race.
But before the Safety Car came out, Applejack, who was in 16th place after starting 20th due to crashing in qualifying, had a left-front suspension failure and snapped right into the barrier with a 50G impact on the approach to turn 9 which did bring out the Safety Car. In just one lap, 2 cars were already out of the race.
The race restarted on lap 24 as there multiple areas needed cleaning up, especially at turn 9 where Applejack McLaren crashed. Applejack was OK but was a bit shaken.
On lap 25, when everything had calmed in terms of drama, Danger lead the way from Sonic Flash, Akula, Viral and Aria. The bottom ten changed dramatically as Rainbow was now up to 11th and not far away from the McLaren of Chandra Dawnsword who shot up to 10th due most the cars from 9th place to 25th place pitting. Chandra was beginning to realise why the Crystal Mountains Raceway wasn’t really keen on the McLaren as both of them crashed in qualifying and Applejack crashing out of the race at lap 19.
Sonic was in second and trying to defend from the charging, shark-mouthed Crimson Arrow of Akula, with Aria locking horns with Viral heading to turn 6. A sudden lock-up from the Prancing Horse saw an opportunity for to pass and made it happen on the exit.
On lap 26, Sonic was still about about 1.4 second adrift for the British Speedfreak but he knows that due to his raw speed, the gap could reaching to a number he wouldn’t like. But before he could think, Akula was trying to overtake him at the double chicane of turns 12 to 15, but a little mistake from Sonic caused the Crimson Arrow to have better exit speed than Sonic. Akula passed Sonic on the start-finish straight.
Meanwhile, Danger was hoping that the blue flags would kick in as on lap 31, he saw the ENVISION GP car of Shadina Nightsword going slower than a Hispania Racing Team car. The blue flag waved and Danger shot passed and his target to lap someone was the Scuderia Galactica of Caitlin Dragonsword.
Oscura had finally overtaken the Bentley of Fluttershy and was now chasing down Aria Blaze, but she had a problem. Due to Fluttershy holding her up since lap 10, the gap between her and Aria was about 5.7 seconds. But with Danger holding first place, she didn’t have to worry over a sudden Ferrari banging her sidepod.
With the top 5 being Danger, Akula, Sonic, Viral and Aria going into lap 32, Amy Firepetal had a bit of pace increase after she pitted eariler and was now chasing the Mercedes of Sunset Shimmer who was now beginning to be slower on pace compared to Iris Dayspark. Amy knew that she couldn’t beat Iris in a blitz down the straight, but she had less experience in a Formula Equestria compared to Iris who raced for Sauber from 2016-2018 before it became Alfa Romeo and in 2019, she was also Mercedes test and reserve driver from 2019-2020. Regardless of experience, Amy passed Sunset and ready for the challenge of making 10 seconds to… hopfully pass Iris.
As the race was entering it’s 36th lap, the drama continued as Sapphire Flame’s gearbox suddenly found out that it wasn’t in Crystal Mountains and went on strike, Sapphire knew that she had reitre the car because of how she suddenly lost 7th gear.
Meanwhile, Danger was beginning to have a sudden degradation with the tyres, he knew that he had to tell Crimsonia to go to pits.
“Crim, is it just or are my tires degrading more than usual?” Danger asked her.
“From the looks of your tire health, it does look like your left-front tyre is degrading more.” Crimsonia replied. “Do you want to risk a pit stop?”
Danger became unsure what to do.
“Give it two or three laps and I’ll decide, I’m OK if I lose a bit of time in the pits, it’s only because I want to make the race more interesting.” Danger said.
“OK, I’ll keep you posted on the gap between you and Akula.” Crimsonia announced,
On lap 38, after building a nice 7.7 second gap to Akula, decided to go for a tactical pit stop as his front-left tyre was nearly down to the canvas. Akula didn’t know that Danger pulled in this late in the race. But nonetheless, he was still being chased by Sonic Flash.
Danger rejoined the race in 3rd place only 2 seconds behind Sonic and just ahead of Viral. He knew that a Crimson Arrow will be on the podium and the end of race.
With just 3 laps to go, a bit of drama occurred as the Scuderia Galactica of Pasadena Dragonstorm spun out at turn 9, but become Pasadena got going again, the race was back under green flag conditions.
On the last lap, Sonic made one last lunge at turn the double chicane to try to snatch the lead away from the Crimson Arrow. But it wasn’t successful, Akula defended with confidence and it was rewarded as he crossed the line first with Sonic second, Danger third, Viral fourth and Aria fifth. Oscura came sixth, Iris Dayspark seventh, Amy Firepetal eigth, Sunset Shimmer ninth and Chandra Dawnsword finishing the top 10.