All winter tests, free practice sessions and qualifying practice in Qatar have offered nothing but worries, disappointments and technical difficulties for the experienced Finn and runner up world champion of Moto2-class of last season. During Sunday’s race, he showed off his brilliance as a rider and climbed determinedly from position 16, to finish impressively on the 6th place. He demonstrated that cool nerves, a strong will and a good strategy add up to the final result also, apart from the obvious needed element, speed. The catastrophe was thus averted and Kallio was relieved.
-When I look back to the extremely poor conditions in which we started off to the race, I and my team can be nothing but proud of the result. We took still massive risks in the warm up and changed once again the settings, just before the start. Luckily this gamble paid off and I actually felt better with the bike. Not perfect, but the direction was right. We were 4-5 tenths faster per lap this way, so the benefit was there and I got a lot more self confidence, a content Kallio stated.
The race offered a lot of drama, as the pole position rider Sam Lowes crashed, with the current world champion Tito Rabat joining him amongst the retirees shortly after. Also Johann Zarco, who lead the race for quite some time, experienced sudden difficulties with his gearbox and was forced to reduce his speed towards the end of the race, enabling Kallio to fight his way past him.
-In the beginning of the race Morbidelli and a few other guys had quite a lead on me, but mid-race I managed to catch their pack and then we started battling for the positions, taking over each other one by one and changing positions on a rapid pace. Some of the guys in that pack ended up on the podium, so in a sense I feel that a slightly better performance would have possibly taken me there too. Well, this was all the speed I could manage today and it always is good to challenge yourself and keep hungry, Kallio analysed.
When the riders started their last lap, Kallio was on position 6. He was finally able to take over Cortese just before the finishing line, but the points really did not come in easy.
-I am quite satisfied with my own riding and I actually managed to pull off the maximal performance possible today. The race was exceptionally demanding physically, because I felt that the bike was willing to take the opposite direction than me and I had a tough time handling it in the corners, Kallio admitted.
Repeating this performance will not be easy in Austin, where the next race will take place in Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, April 12th.
-We need to figure out something for the next race in order to gain more speed and trust with the bike. The one big thing we need to decide is that will we continue with the 2015 chassis, or will we switch back to the Kalex 2014-model. In any case, we need to make this decision soon. I look forward to the race in Texas, I like the track and previously I have been positioned 3rd and 4th in this race, Kallio sums up.
The next race of the season will take place in Austin on the Circuit of the Americas-track 12th of April.
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