In the live chat, someone expressed doubt. It was unclear how much faster the Ducati was, but the visual impact was obvious, with incredibly high speed exiting the corners.
"It must be that front fork height adjustment device. You guys go investigate."
Tessu had already pinpointed the problem and immediately ordered his subordinates to look into it.
With a full 0.4-second gap, the pursuing Garner couldn't even keep up. After several corners, he hadn't even entered the attack range, and was instead being pulled further away. By turn eight, the gap between them had widened to nearly a second.
It wasn't just a fast exit from one corner; it was fast from every exit.
This was no longer just a matter of skill disparity; the bike itself was outperforming them. kAnshu伍.ξà
After observing for a while, Reisner prepared to go out. He didn't choose to go out at the same time as Lin Yan, but instead picked a time when the track was relatively empty. In qualifying, those kinds of maneuvers were impractical; setting lap times was the real business.
Lin Yan's thoughts were the same as Reisner's. He hadn't even known someone was chasing him from behind, focusing entirely on setting lap times.
"Three red sectors, let's check Lin Shen's ranking. First place, got it!"
After completing his first lap, Lin Yan smoothly secured the top spot on the current lap time leaderboard. Although qualifying had just begun, for most fans, this was essentially the final ranking. Lin Shen taking pole position? That was as easy as breathing.
Reisner went out and quickly set a lap time faster than Garner's. The two began to compete for second place on the leaderboard.
"Damn, this rookie is something else. He's managed to set such a high lap time. His skill level is at least on par with Reisner's."
"What are you thinking? Lap times are lap times, skill is skill. If they're fighting for position in the main race, I bet this guy will get crushed. Haven't you heard of qualifying king, race loser!"
When the first lap results were released, Garner's performance caught the attention of the spectators. A rookie coming in and setting such a high lap time, his talent was truly explosive, even by GP standards. Indeed, GP was still the same old GP, always full of geniuses.
Their lap time battle continued for three laps. Finally, under team orders, Reisner held back, ceding second place to Garner.
The instruction to yield the position made Reisner extremely dissatisfied, which was evident from him hitting his helmet after crossing the finish line. kanδん
The hype of a rookie's lap time surpassing a two-time champion attracted a lot of fans for Garner during the qualifying session. On the track, skill was what fans valued most. No matter how bad your character, as long as you had skill, you'd have fans.
Back in the pit box, when Lin Yan saw the kid's lap time, he was a little surprised. It wasn't that he was surprised by how fast the guy was, but rather that he had managed to outperform Reisner.
He understood Reisner's skill level – fast and consistent. Last year, he could even challenge his lap times on some tracks. He hadn't expected him to be surpassed this year. Could the crash at the end of last season have affected him?
Reisner had competed with an injury at the end of last year, and later crashed in the main race. Lin Yan heard it was quite a serious fall.
"Young Master, it's likely that the Benda team instructed Reisner to yield."
Lin Yan hadn't seen it, but Zhang Mingzhi had seen the signs displayed by the Benda team from below, asking the veteran to build momentum for the rookie. Well... as a fellow chief technician, he understood this method, but didn't agree with it, as it could easily disheartened people.
"Yield?"
Lin Yan was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood. It was another unwritten rule of the workplace on the track.
Teams were also workplaces, and workplace rules applied equally.
If Lin Yan remembered correctly, Reisner was twenty-seven years old this year. Although at his peak, he wasn't far from thirty. Now that a new talent had emerged, the team would definitely want to cultivate him extensively. Moreover, in this situation, salary was also an issue.
Salary would cause the team management's attitude towards the rider to change. To put it bluntly, GP was also a workplace. If the team paid you a high salary, but your performance was gradually declining, you would inevitably be met with disdain.
Given Reisner's record of two championships in the premier class, Lin Yan estimated that Benda would pay him an annual salary of around eight million euros, or even more.
And this Garner probably wouldn't even earn a million euros. His annual salary was likely in the hundreds of thousands of euros. That was the price for a rookie. Their current lap times were similar, yet one had talent and was steadily improving, while the other was gradually declining. If you were the boss, what would you do?
Although these things weren't openly discussed, they existed behind the scenes. Lin Yan knew this all too well from personal experience.
In his previous life, if he had passed thirty and his condition had declined, without considering his personal influence, it was possible the team would have let him go. A salary of seventeen million euros, to put it bluntly, letting him go could support the entire team. The salaries of two riders plus the entire technical team could almost be covered.
Capital rarely talked about feelings; they only wanted the strongest rider in the world, a rider who could bring them value.
Reisner did return to the pit box and was indeed furious. He took off his racing suit and threw it on the ground, his face grim. However, he didn't question Tessu's decision in front of the cameras. Instead, he walked into the meeting room. The door was open, and it was obvious who he was waiting for.
Reisner was clearly still giving the newly appointed chief technician some face, but to the spectators, Reisner's grim expression had already revealed the situation.
This two-time champion was clearly very angry, extremely angry.
"Wow, what's going on with Reisner?"
"He's pissed off, isn't he? Didn't you see the sign Benda put up earlier?"
"What did it say? I don't understand English, and I couldn't see it clearly anyway."
"I couldn't see it clearly either. Let's guess. What else could it be? Most likely they told Reisner to yield, otherwise why would he suddenly fall so far behind on that crucial final lap."
"......"
Seeing the two enter the office, Lin Yan shook his head and stopped watching the camera feed.
"Alright, you go attend to your business. You don't need to worry about me."
He reached out and held the small hand gently massaging his shoulder, Lin Yan said softly. The qualifying session for the premier class was over. Next up were the smaller displacement categories, Moto2, and Moto3.
Moto2 wasn't particularly exciting. Lin Yan was more interested in the results of Yan Xiaoqiang and the others in Moto3. However, this year's Moto3 seemed to have a new rider, Reisner's younger brother, Reisker.
Just entering Moto3, Reisker was riding for a private team, similar to ls27, on a unified Moto3 factory bike. At this moment, Reisker's gaze was fixed intently on the Benda pit box, clearly concerned about his brother's situation.
After talking with Tessu in the office for over ten minutes, Reisner emerged. As he walked out, the usually composed Reisner's brows were tightly furrowed. Lin Yan could see that Reisner's mood was very complex. He wanted to act as if nothing had happened but couldn't stomach the anger. He wanted to express his rage but was hesitant, like a humble employee who either endures or leaves.
Reisner had clearly chosen the former.