Madrid: The Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation - QMMF Racing Team’s new signing Mika Kallio had a strong debut at the Aragón Grand Prix, pushing his Speed Up bike to an impressive eleventh place, yesterday in Madrid.
In a race that was re-started and shortened to 14 laps after an accident, he first struggled to find enough confidence and dropped back to 15th place, but made a great recovery in the second half and missed out on a Top Ten finish by less than half of a second.
His Spanish team-mate Julian Simon also started with great ambitions in front of his home crowd, but crashed out in lap five, just after passing another rider. He is now hoping for better luck at the next race in Japan.
“My start was okay, I think I gained two places. But somehow, the first part of the race was not so easy for me. I didn’t really have the confidence to push the bike to the limit,” said Kallio following the race.
“I struggled on the opening laps for this reason and I also need to say that our engine wasn’t the best this weekend, as I lost three positions in consecutive laps on the straight.”
Kallio added: “We knew before the race that this could be our weak point and it’s good that we get a new one for the next three races. The second half of the race was okay, I got into my rhythm better and the lap time improved”, he said.
“Even though the tyres dropped off a little, we went faster and I’m happy for this. But if we could have been stronger during the first laps, we could have been in the top ten, which was my goal.”
Kallio further said: “That’s why I’m not 100 percent satisfied. But the weekend went without any mistakes and we need to remember that everything was new for me and also for the team that didn’t know exactly how I like the set-up of the bike and what I need to push to the limit. We already have some ideas of what we can do in Japan and I’m sure we can improve.
“I want to say thanks to the team, they did a good job and all in all it was a very positive weekend.”
Simon who did not finish the race was disappointed.
“It was a difficult weekend and a difficult race. I crashed in turn eight, the chicane, and I am sorry for the team because they put a lot of effort into the set-up of the bike this weekend but were not rewarded,” he said.
“At that moment, I had just passed Ricky Cardus, I was close to my team-mate Mika and I was able to push hard because in yesterday’s practice session, I managed to recover the feeling for my bike, which hadn’t been so good at the beginning of the weekend. It’s a pity, but now we have to think about Motegi and how we can be in good shape for the final races of this season,” he added.THE PENINSULA
