The conditions in which KTM sent its test rider Mika Kallio to the Grand Prix front was not a gift. By his employer's own admission, it's like suddenly throwing his 36-year-old Finn into cold water. In fact, there was no miracle and with this 17e Instead, he probably did no better than what the one he replaced, Johann Zarco, could have done. But for the next five races, the former Moto2 world vice-champion warns that he will at least want to bring home points…
Mika Kallio had to get back up to speed Aragon in a difficult context at KTM. In fact, he has not been unworthy and he has the esteem of his leaders: “ we must be really happy with Mika's performance. Because we had him here as a replacement for Zarco and his opponents all had 13 of the Grand Prix behind them » declared the manager of the official team Mike Leitner.
« It's been a long time since I took part in a Grand Prix. So it wasn't so easy to get back into rhythm » assured the test pilot KTM. “ So you can't expect me to jump on the bike and be on the same level as everyone else. We saw this weekend that it doesn't happen overnight, we need tricks and tricks. Of course, you should never be satisfied. But the first of six planned weekends we did went decently. »
« I didn't make any mistakes in practice or in the race » added the Finn. “ Only the final result doesn't satisfy me, because I was already in the points for a while, but I don't know, we made a mistake. That's because I took the hard tires front and rear, most of the top riders were on the rear with the soft compound. This was obviously not the best option. Because it wasn't as hot as yesterday. But I don't have enough experience and I didn't know how a soft or hard tire would behave after 20 or 23 laps. That’s why we played it safe. »
In the rainy session of FP3 and during the warmup, Mika Kallio temporarily appeared in the top places. “ Yes, yes, they were rain tires... It's one of my specialties. It was difficult conditions when the track started to dry. These are conditions that I have always liked. I had a very good feeling when there wasn't much water left on the track. If we're lucky, we can still have a race this year in such conditions... »
Rock now has five opportunities to score championship points this year. At Jerez 2018 and Spielberg 2017, he took 10th place with the KTM RC16. “ This first weekend was a kind of warm-up for us. The first part of the return. The aim of the remaining races will certainly be to score points. This is the least we can do. We are now going to Thailand, where I tested the KTM in February 2018. Here the tires did not work properly. It should be better for us in Buriram. We should have more grip than in Aragón. »
MotoGP Aragón J3: classification
