For a return to business, Mika Kallio did not do it in half measures. This first day in Sepang woke MotoGP from its hibernation and the Finn was particularly active on the Malaysian track. His injured knee since the Sachsenring remains a handicap, but the KTM test rider is a tough guy. He even had to go through the process of giving up his favorite number…
Public chat crash.net, the one who should have shared these foreplay with Dani Pedrosa begins with a regret: “ Mir comes to MotoGP and he uses the same number as me, 36. I'm not a regular rider, so I can't keep him and he will have it. I looked at the list of available numbers and decided on 66. For no particular reason! »
In terms of physical condition, he grits his teeth: “ I struggle in right turns to get the correct position, as I still lack some movement and flexibility in my knee. I can't really use the rear brake, because the leg doesn't work properly. So there are some issues with that, but, for now, I'm pretty happy with it. I was maybe even expecting a worse feeling with this knee. We still managed to work well, do a lot of laps, which is important because we can test different things ».
He continues by summing up his day on Friday: “ the main thing was to do laps with the bikes of the other KTM riders, who will start testing on Saturday. I was mainly doing laps on Pol and Johann's bikes, then moved on to the Tech3 machines. It was quite interesting because everyone has a slightly different setup and position on the bike. After that I took my RC16 and did about 30 laps. In total, I tried seven KTMs! ».
Rock ends by talking about the new aerodynamic configuration interviewed: “ It was the first time I tried this type of fin. It's like always, there are positives, negatives, but we'll have to decide later when we see what the other drivers prefer. Everyone thinks that the wings add a lot to the lap time, but in the end, the difference is really minimal ».
