Kallio 12th in free practices of Friday - arrival of new parts delayed

The free practices of Friday at the legendary track of Le Mans did not go quite as planned for Mika Kallio. Shock manufacturer Öhlins was not able to deliver the expected and well awaited upgrade parts for Kallio’s bike to Le Mans, and the Finn was forced to endure with the old front fork for a few more sessions. Kallio finished 12th in the FP2 of the afternoon and acquired the same position in the combined times of Friday, with a gap of 0,837 to fastest man of the day, Tito Rabat. 

 -The first free practice session this morning was a disaster. Riding did not feel good and I did not get a single satisfying lap. During the afternoon we changed the geometry of the bike and riding was a bit easier afterwards, especially in the slow turns, where I noticed improvement with the bike’s mobility. Later in the session when we switched tyres, this helped even more and I was able to squeeze off a whole second of my lap times. The direction was right, but this is still not enough, Kallio summed up. 

 -I wonder what happened with the front fork, which was supposed to arrive for this weekend, since I did not receive it yesterday as planned. Hopefully it is here tomorrow, so we have one practice’s worth of time to figure out the track-specific settings with it before qualifying begins. This part gave us a noticeable improvement in the tests in Aragon last week, so I am really looking forward to using it soon, Kallio added. 

 Upgrade parts play a big role with the compatibility of the bikes in the Moto2-class and Kallio has involuntarily given a head start to some of his key competitors in the class, who have received these parts earlier on, some straight from the season start. 

 -Some fellow riders have had these parts in their bikes for a while already and I am really not sure why our team receives them so late in the season. This is though the situation at the moment and I will work with the current set up as hard as possible. The performance and effort given by the rider needs to be 100%, no matter how the bike is, Kallio continued. 

 Even though the season start has not been smooth for Kallio, he is not willing to settle for anything less than the top three rows for tomorrow’s qualifying. 

 -In the last free practice of Saturday we will hopefully see improvement in how the front works with the new parts and I expect positive changes in the lap times. I hope to find myself in the first three rows in qualifying, and if this happens, there is a chance to fight for the top positions, Kallio finished.

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