The joy was short-lived for the man who was urgently called to replace Johann Zarco within the official KTM team.
Already a test pilot for the Austrian firm, and therefore completely used to driving the RC16, Mika Kallio finished his first Grand Prix with the factory team in a modest 17th position, 10 seconds behind Miguel Oliveira in Aragón.
In Thailand, things do not seem to be improving, on the contrary, since the Finnish driver will start from the penultimate position, i.e. 10 places behind his leader who is nevertheless seriously diminished.
Suddenly, doubt sets in for someone who did two full seasons on a Ducati Pramac in 2009 and 2010…
Mika Kallio : " I'm disappointed. I am disappointed with my time and my pace. I'm having trouble finding grip with the rear tire. Here it is even worse than in Aragón. I'm not happy with my job and we need to see what we can do, but we don't have much time. We have nothing to lose. We would like to be better during the race. We might need to adjust the bike differently in terms of load transfer, shifting a little weight back and forth, because we're not using the rear tire enough. »
“The only option for me is the soft rear tire, the harder tire was a disaster. It also showed that something is wrong, because Pol and Miguel didn't complain much about it, so it's down to me and my riding style. I'm disappointed and I really want to bring more to KTM. It’s clear that no one is happy at the moment. »
MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix Q2 standings:
MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix Q1 standings:
Credit rankings: MotoGP.com
