"Damn, this mist is too thick, I can't even see the cars behind us."
"Have you seen how heavy this rain is? I've been watching races for so many years, and this is the heaviest rain I've ever seen."
"Stop talking, look quickly, we're about to enter Turn 1."
The pack kicked up a dense spray of water from the start, and from the initial launch, the front two rows of riders had perfect starts. Lin Yan, starting from pole position, surged ahead.
As the first car off the line, Lin Yan didn't have to contend with the spray from the rear tires of cars ahead. His visibility was relatively clear. However, as the rain continued to fall, Lin Yan's helmet visor was covered in a large number of water droplets, significantly obscuring his vision.
He shifted up three gears in quick succession, then approached Turn 1. He downshifted, braked, and hugged the inside line.
The straight before the final corner on this track was short, only 0.7 kilometers. Midway down this straight, almost immediately after the start, they reached Turn 1. The distance was very short.
With water splashing up on either side of his wheels, the GP23 took the inside line into Turn 1. As he entered the corner, Lin Yan extended his leg on the inside. Rossi's leg also served a purpose: it could widen his car's track width and block overtakes from riders behind him.
Of course, this effect was almost negligible. It was more of a habitual action, as extending his foot from the footrest only widened his lateral position by a tiny amount.
Behind him, second-placed Gardner followed closely. At the start, riders couldn't pull away from each other. Gardner's car was right on Lin Yan's tail, followed by Reisner, Rins, and Joan Mir.
Several cars entered Turn 1 simultaneously.
"The start of the Thai Grand Prix is very intense. Lin Shen has entered Turn 1. Behind Lin Shen is Gardner, third is Reisner, fourth is Rins, fifth is Joan Mir, and sixth is Ren Fei."
"In the top six, there are six cars. Ducati itself accounts for four of them. This scene truly defies my understanding. As for what everyone is most concerned about, KTM..."
"Good heavens, this first-person view is just a blur of water."
The rain was too heavy, so the director had to switch back to the aerial helicopter footage. At Turn 1, every rider was proceeding cautiously, with minimal lean angles.
Reisner, in particular, riding the GP23 in the rain for the first time, was going very slowly to ensure safety.
He took Turn 1 at 213 km/h in third gear. After exiting Turn 1, there was a short straight of 0.5 kilometers. Lin Yan, at the front, piloted the GP23 like a speedboat in the rain. Upon exiting the corner, he accelerated fiercely, aiming to quickly shake off the pack behind him.
Gardner, behind him, followed closely, trying his best to keep up with Lin Yan.
"Wow, Gardner can actually keep up with Lin Shen's speed. That's impressive."
"That's just exiting the corner. Let's see how it is after this short straight."
Someone in the stands exclaimed in surprise when they saw Gardner keeping pace with Lin Yan.
On the 0.5-kilometer short straight, the Ducati's horsepower advantage was not fully utilized. Two bikes, one red and one orange, sped madly in the rain.
As they entered Turn 2, Lin Yan had only managed to pull away from Gardner by a small margin, about half a bike length.
Gardner's strength in wet conditions was indeed considerable. However, the main reason was that no one could interfere with him yet, and it was difficult for Reisner behind him to attack.
At this moment, Reisner was still trying to adapt to his new bike. He was hesitant to push it in the rain.
"We can see that due to this rain, all the riders are riding very cautiously. There are too many uncertainties in the rain. Oh! An Aprilia rider has crashed."
Hao Dong was still meticulously commentating on the race. At Turn 1, an Aprilia rider, squeezed to the edge of the track by the pack and hitting the kerb, crashed immediately and retired from the race.
In this kind of rain, a slight twitch of the bike, which would normally be minor, could lead to a crash.
At Turn 1, one rider retired, and the safety car quickly went to check on the rider's condition.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Yan arrived at Turn 2. He braked hard, extended his leg, and with extremely heavy braking, Lin Yan managed to slightly widen the gap with Gardner.
He increased the distance from half a bike length to three-quarters of a bike length.
"Pay attention to the position of the KTM rider. They overtook the second Yamaha rider at Turn 2 and moved up to seventh place, closing in on Ren Fei."
KTM remained KTM. As long as it rained, their performance received a significant boost. No one had expected the first overtake of the race to be made by a KTM rider.
In the wet, KTM's straight-line speed was even faster than that of the "horsepower dogs." On a long straight, they easily overtook Yamaha. Overtaking Yamaha was much easier than overtaking Honda.
The orange factory KTM bike, after overtaking Yamaha, moved up to seventh. KTM's steel trellis frame seemed to have a special affinity for wet conditions.
The reason why KTM factory bikes excel in the rain must be attributed to their frame. Factory bikes in MotoGP are packed with cutting-edge technology, representing the crystallization of all the technical expertise of each team. Their prowess in the rain is naturally related to this advanced technology.
Among the components that can be compared to the top-tier black technologies of the engine and gearbox, only the frame remains.
It is no exaggeration to say that the frame technology of MotoGP bikes is so advanced that if any new motorcycle brand were to study the frames used by the six major manufacturers, it would take them decades to fully understand them.
Every weld point on the frame, the strength and MPa of each material, as well as the angles and shapes of the frame, all serve specific purposes. This is the result of decades of research and development, with no expense spared, striving for perfection.
Most of the six major manufacturers use twin-spar frames. The only exception is KTM.
Although there is no concrete evidence to prove that KTM's frame is special and leads to their advantage in the rain, its uniqueness leads many to consider this possibility.
KTM uses a steel trellis frame. As the name suggests, it features circular steel tubes on the sides of the bike. These steel tubes encircle the fuel tank and connect directly to the swingarm at the rear wheel. This is what constitutes a steel trellis frame.
The frame can also be called the core support of a racing bike, similar to a motherboard in a computer that serves as the carrier for the graphics card and CPU.
The twin-spar frames used by the other five major manufacturers are also used in most commercially available sportbikes, regardless of their displacement. This type of frame also originated from MotoGP.
The fact that current sportbikes can use twin-spar frames is due to the technology transfer from MotoGP in the past.
This also indirectly confirms that when it comes to two-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles, one can never avoid this sport. Its contribution to the two-wheeled world is second to none.
Although there is no evidence to confirm that KTM's superior performance in the rain is due to their frame, the probability is quite high. Among the six major manufacturers, KTM is the one that has mastered the steel trellis frame the most.
Most of KTM's commercially available bikes also use steel trellis frames.
The race continued, and in the blink of an eye, the pack had reached Turn 3.