After a rather complicated weekend in Thailand, the KTM rider showed good progress in Japan, without systematically progressing into the top 15. In any case, he is satisfied, and hopes to continue his momentum from Friday in Australia.
Mika Kallio showed a much better pace in Motegi than in Buriram, and managed to rank 16th in FP1, and especially 13th in FP3. However, this was not enough to qualify him for Q2 due to his 21st place in FP2. But the Finn was smiling because of the better sensations with his tires, especially the rear, which he managed to manage better.
Cautious during qualifying, during which some corners were still wet from the falling showers, he could not do better than 17th, but ranked just behind his teammate Pol Espargaró as well as KTM satellite rider Miguel Oliveira. Enough to reassure him before the race, which went well. Kallio had not ridden on the Japanese circuit since 2015, and can congratulate himself on having managed to come back and score two precious points by finishing 14th, after only three races (he made his return to the handlebars of the RC16 in Aragón, editor’s note.)
“If we take into account the whole weekend, I think it ended in a relatively positive way”, he commented. “Fighting for points was the minimum objective and we achieved it. We weren't far from Pol, and Miguel was part of our group. It's just a bit of a shame that I couldn't find a way to fight them. Maybe just by riding I can continue to progress and, little by little, get closer. These are only my first races of the season and I am getting closer to my teammate. Phillip Island will be a totally different track compared to here and hopefully it will have more grip. »
MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix standings:
