At that time, he had just been promoted to the highest class, belonging to the Handa team, and rode a divine machine that year, the Handa's five-cylinder artifact rc211v.
There were only two in the entire Handa team, one for his master Luo Xi, and one for him. However, he seemed to have just been promoted to the highest class that year and was not accustomed to the GP factory machines with excessive horsepower, so his condition declined severely.
However, even so, his annual points ranked seventh in the end. This was not the year he had the accident; his accident occurred in the second year after being promoted to the highest class.
The following year, the first race of the season came to his hometown, the track where he achieved his legendary status, Suzuka Circuit.
When the race reached the third lap, at the position of the 130r at Suzuka, turn fifteen, this legendary rider, riding his rc211v, crashed into the wall in a high-speed death wobble and died.
Turn fifteen at Suzuka is one of the few ultra-high-speed corners on all the world's top tracks. Lin Yan could confirm that the GP factory machines of twenty years ago had a cornering speed exceeding 220k in that turn.
After the accident, this legendary rider remained in a coma for two weeks in the hospital, eventually succumbing to his severe injuries, including a fractured neck and brainstem infarction.
In that world, after the death of this legendary rider, MotoGP never returned to the Suzuka circuit. A group of riders protested, demanding modifications to the buffer zone width and safety measures around the 130r.
Although Suzuka had been modified ten years later, a legendary rider had lost his life there.
After confirming that the 130r had been modified, Lin Yan put away his phone. The video had finished playing, and qualifying was about to begin. Lin Yan squatted on the ground, preparing to warm up.
Not far away, Yan Xiaoqiang and the others were deeply moved by this Daniel's rise to fame.
To describe the rise to fame of this four-time champion with one word: arduous.
It could be said that he had fallen his way up, especially the time he broke his ankles at the Shanghai station, which kept him off the track for a full six months. Lactose intolerance also caused him to miss many races, but even so, he still won four world championships.
Seeing how strong their opponent was, Yan Xiaoqiang and the others couldn't help but worry about Lin Shen. In their eyes, Lin Yan was an invincible existence, and opponents simply did not exist, not even Rossi.
However, after watching this today, they truly felt that this Daniel might pose a threat to Lin Yan.
This move by the organizers undoubtedly garnered a large fan base for Daniel. However, Daniel, who had already retired, didn't care about these things. Like Lin Yan, he didn't lack money; he was here purely for his hobby.
"Good heavens, whose idea was it to release so many of my embarrassing moments?"
In the lounge, Daniel saw the scenes outside and felt a bit shy. He kept thinking about the names of the old men from the organizing committee, wondering which bastard had come up with this idea.
Karina, next to him, hit him. She was getting emotional, and he was acting up. The growth story of a world champion could be made into a documentary; what was there to be shy about?
After being reprimanded by his wife, Daniel felt much better. He came out, warmed up, and prepared for the race.
Soon, it was 11:50 AM, ten minutes before the start of qualifying. Lin Yan was fully geared up and standing at the door of the pit box. Zhang Mingzhi personally removed the tire warmers from the racing car, and the race was about to begin.
Outside, riders from various teams were also pushing their cars to the entrance of the pit box.
Many eyes were cast towards Lin Yan's side. The reason was simple: Ducati had three people, and one of them was Lins. This reunion and cooperation between rivals seemed peculiar to these riders.
In the last race, wasn't this Lins the one who had pushed Lin Yan out? How did he become a teammate this time? Although the race organizers had not imposed any penalties for the incident last time, all the teams were clear-sighted. It was obvious that Lins had deliberately collided with Lin Yan in the previous race. Now that they were together, it was hard not to speculate.
Not far from Lin Yan, Daniel looked over. His gaze held a sense of the strategist observing the protégé, at least that's how Viñales saw it.
Lin Yan was completely unaware of this. If Lin Yan had known that Viñales dared to describe him like that, he would have docked his salary.
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ps: Ten thousand words.