THIRTY YEARS SINCE AYRTON SENNA'S DEATH: Inside his last hotel room... and to where the 支持する／優勝者 fell - OLIVER HOLT returns to Imola where he 証言，証人／目撃するd F1's most 悪口を言う／悪態d race

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There is nothing to 示唆する, from the outside, that there is anything different about Room 200 at Hotel Castello on the 郊外s of the pretty little spa town of Castel San Pietro 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語, a few miles from Bologna.

The bedroom door is as plain and unremarkable as every other door in the modest hotel. Its windows do not have a 見解（をとる） to speak of, because there is nothing much to see out here on the 辛勝する／優位 of town.

But inside, the 控訴 of three rooms has been 保存するd ― with the 新規加入 of a flat 審査する television ― the way it was when Ayrton Senna, the man who many still believe to be the greatest racing driver ever, walked out of that door on the morning of May 1, 1994, and never returned.

The plain white decor is the same, the wardrobe with its light brown lacquered finish and its five shallow drawers is the same, the Japanese frieze above the bed, with four パネル盤s featuring scenes of the moon and mountains and a spindly tree 粘着するing to the slopes, is the same, too.

The massage couch in the 隣接するing room is still there. Even the bath, a 肉親，親類d of 小型の-jacuzzi, has been kept the way it was when Senna left that morning to make the short 旅行 to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, where he would start on the 65th 有利な立場（位置） of his illustrious career for the San Marino Grand Prix.

Ayrton Senna pictured watching qualifying at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in 1994 - the day before the Brazilian 決まり文句／製法 One 星／主役にする was killed after his car left the 跡をつける at Tamburello?

Room 200 at Hotel Castello in Castel San Pietro 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語, where Senna stayed before his 衝突，墜落

Images of Senna adorn the dining room at the hotel, which seems to 存在する as a time 要約する／（宇宙ロケットの）カプセル

The hotel features a glass 閣僚 of Senna memorabilia in 尊敬の印 to the 支持する／優勝者 driver?

There is one other difference, too, apart from the flat 審査する TV. Some words, spoken by Senna, are written on the 塀で囲む in ornate script in the 控訴's 入り口 hall. They are the first thing you see when you walk through the door.

'If a person no longer has dreams,' they say, 'they no longer have a 推論する／理由 to live. Dreaming is necessary, even if reality must be glimpsed in the dre am. For me it is one of the 原則s of life.'

It was a public holiday in Italy on Thursday. To celebrate the Festa della Liberazione, a 禁止（する）d marched through the streets of Castel San Pietro 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語, and nine miles away to the south-east in Imola, they threw the gates of the 回路・連盟 open to the public.

I squeezed my 雇う car into a space beneath the 巨大（な） mural that 描写するs Senna pointing to the heavens and 支配するs the 入り口 to the 回路・連盟 at the Piazza Ayrton Senna da Silva.?

Families sat in the cafe, sipping their coffees, and then 長，率いるd out for a stroll around a 跡をつける that is far too beautiful to have 証言，証人／目撃するd so much death and grief.

I stood on the starting grid for a couple of minutes and then 始める，決める off に向かって Tamburello.?

An older brother and his sister raced each other on little scooters に向かって a corner whose 指名する sends a shiver 負かす／撃墜する the spines of 決まり文句／製法 One fans everywhere as the 跡をつける curved gently away to the left in the distance. Another, older kid rumbled past on roller blades.

I had walked this walk before but that was 30 years ago, the day after the race, the day after the most 悪口を言う／悪態d 週末 in F1 history, when death and 嘆く／悼むing were all around and I was a young reporter trying to come to 条件 with a 悲劇 that I also knew would probably be the biggest story I would ever cover.

Senna's image is everywhere at the hotel, which serves as a 神社 to his memory

Room 200, where Senna left on the morning of May 1, 1994 and never returned?

The 衝撃 of Senna's Williams car into the 障壁 after the 衝突，墜落 at 速度(を上げる）s of 145 mph

Senna in thoughtful 提起する／ポーズをとる in the statue 築くd in his honour at the place of his death in 1994

The mangled 難破 of Senna's Williams Renault car on a 週末 of 悲劇 支援する in 1994

On the Friday at Imola in 1994,?Rubens Barrichello slammed into the tyre 塀で囲む at 160mph

On the Friday before Senna was killed, his young compatriot Rubens Barrichello had been 伴う／関わるd in a 抱擁する 事故 during the first qualifying 開会／開廷／会期.?

When Barrichello 回復するd consciousness in the 回路・連盟's 医療の centre, the first 直面する he saw was Senna's, 涙／ほころびs rolling 負かす／撃墜する his cheeks.

The next day, Roland Ratzenberger, the Austrian Simtek driver, was killed at the Villeneuve section of the 跡をつける, an innocuous left-権利 kink a few hundred yards その上の on in the （競技場の）トラック一周 from Tamburello.

Senna, who was 34, 主張するd on 存在 taken to the scene, against the sport's 支配するs.?

Ratzenberger was the first racing driver to lo se his life at a grand prix 週末 since the 1982 season, when Riccardo Paletti was killed at the Canadian Grand Prix.

早期に that evening, によれば the esteemed 新聞記者／雑誌記者 Richard Williams' brilliant 調書をとる／予約する 'The Death of Ayrton Senna', Senna phoned his girlfriend Adriane Galisteu from the Hotel Castello and told her he would not be racing in the grand prix.

Later that night, after a dinner with friends at Trattoria Romagnola in the town, where pictures of him 支配する one of the rooms, he called her again and said he had changed his mind.

Austrian driver?Roland Ratzenberger in the 難破 of his 衝突，墜落 - he later died of his 傷害s

Drivers (left to 権利) Nigel Mansell, ジーンズ Alesi, Harald Frentzen, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Aguri Suzuki 観察する a minute's silence for Ratzenberger and Senna in 1995

It is hard now, at a time when Senna's 記録，記録的な／記録するs have been （太陽，月の）食／失墜d first by Michael Schumacher and then by 吊りくさび Hamilton, to しっかり掴む やめる how 重要な a 人物／姿／数字 he was in the world of sport.

It was not just that he was a supremely talented driver who had won three world 肩書を与えるs and was 推定する／予想するd to 勝利，勝つ many more, at a time when the grid had been packed with 広大な／多数の／重要なs such as Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

There was something else about Senna, too. There was a melancholy that seems, with hindsight, like the sadness of a 悲劇 foretold. But there was something wild, 同様に, something that could not be tamed, something that 脅すd other drivers.

When Senna rammed Prost at the first corner of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, taking 復讐 for an 出来事/事件 the previous season and also 確実にするing he won the driver's 肩書を与える, his 競争相手 was disgusted.

'I am not 用意が出来ている to fight against irresponsible people who are not afraid to die,' Prost said.

That 肉親，親類d of madness, 決意, obsession and かかわり合い is an aphrodisiac for sports fans and at the start of the 1990s, Senna was one of the biggest sports 星／主役にするs in the world, と一緒に men like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.

McLaren-Honda team-mates Prost (前線) and Senna just before their 衝突／不一致 in 1989

Prost makes the walk 支援する to the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 小道／航路, hounded by? photographers, after the 1989 衝突，墜落

Senna 押し通すs Prost off the 回路・連盟 at the first corner of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka

I began working as a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 in sport in 1993. When I flew to the first race of the season in South Africa, I saw Senna in the WH Smith 蓄える／店 at 終点 4 at Heathrow and 熱望して introduced myself as the new モーター racing 特派員 for the Times.

He was 伴う／関わるd in a stand-off with his McLaren team at the time and there was still 疑問 about whether he would race at Kyalami, so I asked him what the 状況／情勢 was.?

He was 肉親，親類d and 外交の, but I only had to wait until the third race of the season to see him 表明する himself fully.

His first （競技場の）トラック一周 in the rain at the European Grand Prix at Donington Park that April, in a McLaren that was vastly inferior to the Williams of Prost, is 広範囲にわたって regarded as the greatest F1 （競技場の）トラック一周 ever driven.?

Victory for Senna after his magnificent 運動 at the European Grand Prix at Donington, 1993

In a sport whose detractors say winning is 純粋に about having the best car, Senna's 勝利，勝つ at Donington was a victory for a driver who was a genius.

He was seen almost as a mystic. He spoke about the '限界', the phrase used in モーター racing to 述べる the 境界s of the 能力s of driver and car, and how, on one occasion at the Monaco Grand Prix, he 設立する himself 運動ing beyond the 限界 as if he was having an out-of- 団体／死体 experience.

That was part of the fascination with him. There was just enough mystery about him to make him seem invincible.?

So when his car 粉砕するd into the 塀で囲む at more than 190mph at Tamburello that afternoon, there was an 空気／公表する of stunned 不信 at Imola.

It was to 現れる later that the steering column in Senna's car had snapped as he tried to turn into Tamburello.?

'Senna, my goodness,' the BBC's 脚 endary commentator Murray Walker yelled at millions of horrified テレビ視聴者s, 'I just saw him 急落（する），激減（する） off to the 権利. What on earth happened there, I don't know.'

決まり文句／製法 One had got used to seeing drivers walk away 比較して 無傷の from big 事故s, but Ratzenberger's death had been a 抱擁する shock and it soon became 明らかな that another 悲劇 was 広げるing.

Senna before the start of the fateful San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, having decided to race

The Brazilian was in two minds over whether he should race after Ratzenberger's 事故

The television pictures beamed into the 圧力（をかける） room, and around the world, showed a 審査する 存在 築くd around Senna as medics 扱う／治療するd him.?

I saw a couple of 新聞記者／雑誌記者s, people who knew Senna 井戸／弁護士席, in 涙／ほころびs as the 公式発表s from the hospital in Bologna, where he had been taken by ヘリコプター, grew ますます 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. His death was 確認するd after the 再開するd race had finished.

I left the 回路・連盟 around midnight, just as Senna's friend and 圧力（をかける） officer Betise Assumpcao was returning from the Maggiore Hospital in Bologna where Senna had been taken.?

Betise was a popular, much-loved, irrepressible 人物／姿／数字 の中で the English 圧力（をかける）. The grief I saw on her 直面する that night is still 燃やすd on my memory.

The next morning, I answered the phone in the room above a pizzeria that I was 株ing with my 同僚, （頭が）ひょいと動く McKenzie, from the Daily 表明する ― we did not have 動きやすい phones then ― and 答える／応じるd to a 一連の questions from a 無線で通信する Four presenter who was asking how anyone could 正当化する the 存在 of 決まり文句／製法 One any more. Grand prix racing had become a 血 sport again.

Then （頭が）ひょいと動く and I drove to the 回路・連盟 and walked through the same gate I walked through on Thursday and walked the same walk to Tamburello. I remember that walk and its 詳細（に述べる）s as if it were yesterday.

Senna leads the field just after the start of the Grand Prix - just minutes before his 致命的な 衝突，墜落

I remember seeing the lurid, ugly scar ― a grotesque, elongated gouge ― on the 固める／コンクリート 塀で囲む where Senna's car had 粉砕するd into it a little over 18 hours earlier.?

I remember the discolouration of the gravel where medics had tried to save him as he lay dying.

I had only been there for a few minutes when a silver Mercedes with 色合いd windows pulled up on the 跡をつける nearby.?

While I was wondering why a 乗り物 had been 許すd out on the 跡をつける, a woman dressed all in 黒人／ボイコット, impossibly elegant in her grief, climbed out and placed a bouquet on the gravel and, without 説 a word to anyone, got 支援する into the car.

I noticed different things this time. I heard the happy, gurgling 急ぐ of the River Santerno that runs, unseen, behind this part of the 回路・連盟 and 設立する myself wondering like a fool if it were even remotely possible that its melody might have brought Senna some 慰安 as he lay dying.

I noticed the laughter of the children playing in the park, the birdsong and the thwack of racquet on ball coming from an Over-55s tennis tournament on the red clay 法廷，裁判所s of the neat 地元の club that nestles in the 物陰／風下 of the hill that separates it from the 急落（する），激減（する）ing curves of the Acque Minerali section of the 回路・連盟.

I noticed the hundreds of brightly-coloured 旗s ― many of them the Brazil 国家の 旗 ― on the catch-盗品故買者ing on the inside of Tamburello and the 尊敬の印s that had been written on them.

The Senna 記念の is adorned with 尊敬の印s to his brilliance at the Imola 回路・連盟?

Pictures from Imola in 2020 of photographs and 尊敬の印s left in Senna's honour?

'Ayrton, you are just one （競技場の）トラック一周 ahead of us,' one said. 'You are forever in our hearts.'

A few feet away, a monument to Senna 残り／休憩（する）d in the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the trees in a public park. It is a heart-achingly poignant piece of art, a bronze statue of Senna sitting on what could be a 炭坑，オーケストラ席-塀で囲む, his shoulders hunched, his 長，率いる 屈服するd, his gaze 直す／買収する，八百長をするd in the direction of the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he lost his life.?

It 逮捕（する）s that melancholy in Senna that never seemed to be too far from the surface.

This time, when I got to Tamburello, I looked at the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where Senna's Williams-Renault had 攻撃する，衝突する the 塀で囲む, breaking the 権利-手渡す 前線 wheel off the car and snapping a steel 中断 arm which stabbed through his famous yellow helmet just above his 権利 寺.

It seemed as if the ash trees and poplars that grow there and which had borne 証言，証人／目撃する on May 1, 1994, were leaning over that 位置／汚点／見つけ出す like 後見人s of his final 残り／休憩（する）ing place.

驚くべき／特命の／臨時の scenes at Senna's funeral in Sao Paulo, Brazil as thousands packed the streets

This time, I did not stop at Tamburello. I walked on, past the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where Ratzenberger died, past the 記念の to Gilles Villeneuve, who was killed during qualifying for the ベルギー Grand Prix at Zolder in 1982 and on to Tosa, the sharp left-hander that curves around a dilapidated old farmhouse with 崩壊するing terracotta tiles.

I talked to a woman behind the 反対する at the 蓄える／店 at the 回路・連盟 about the events that are planned for the 30th 周年記念日 of Senna's death next Wednesday and she spoke about the 'strange energy' that descends over the 跡をつける on May 1 each year, when people make their 巡礼の旅s to Imola to honour Senna's life.

That energy means different things to different people. I feel it in the memories of that day 30 years ago, I feel it in knowing that my career was carried along on the rising tide of 嘆く／悼むing, 怒り／怒る and 演劇 that followed Senna's death and I feel it in the 圧倒的な sadness of the joys 否定するd to him by a life 削減（する） so short.

That energy does strange things to the imagination, too.

When I walked 負かす／撃墜する the hill to Rivazza, 近づく the finish of the （競技場の）トラック一周, the 勝利，勝つd began to blow and the 空気／公表する was suddenly filled with ethereal white forms, dancing on the 微風 like sprites, seed pods, symbols of new life, 特使s from the poplars that stand at Tamburello like loyal 後見人s of the fallen 支持する／優勝者.