Kallio: During my career, I have never experienced anything like this

The Finnish pilot Mika Kallio, riding in Moto2-class in the Italtrans team, has commenced his race season of 2015 in Qatar during the free practices of Thursday. The issues faced during winter tests were unfortunately still present during FP1 & FP2. 

 Kallio was left on 19th position during both practice sessions, with a gap to the fastest rider ranging from 2,9 seconds to 2,1 seconds. Kallio was obviously not content, and most of all, utterly bewildered about the situation. 

 -We do not understand a single thing about the bike’s behaviour at the moment. We changed the settings for both practice sessions dramatically, without having a mentionable effect on the feeling of the bike. The problem with the front grip remained the same no matter what we did, and this is something I have never experienced before during my career. It is utterly incomprehensible that the bike’s behaviour did not change at all, even though we modified the settings with a tough hand, reported a confused Kallio after Thursday’s sessions. 

 The last remaining free practice session of Friday is the only opportunity for the hungry Finn to find the crucial confident feeling with the bike before the qualifying session on Saturday.

Kallio and his team are trying their utmost to come up with a solution which would take the bike to the needed level, but time is running out. 

 -On Friday we need to try some radical changes with the suspension and see if the front grip can be found by adjusting the springs. There is a lot of work to be done, but on the other hand, we have now reached the bottom performance level and the only road out for us is up, Kallio finishes. 

 The Moto2 race season premier will take place in Losail, Qatar, on the 29th of March. 

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