Bad luck for Kallio in Mugello - unfortunate crash in race

Mika Kallio’s bad luck continued in Mugello in the Italian GP of Sunday. Kallio was forced to commence his race from position 23 at the back of the grid due to an uncompetitive time in qualifying, but managed to make yet another great start and climbed up gaining better positions steadily. Kallio was picking up speed due to a slight improvement in settings and had just clocked his best lap time of the weekend, when an unfortunate crash in front of him, involving Kallio’s team mate Franco Morbidelli, knocked him off track.The Finn was forced to end his race with a deliberate crash to avoid a dangerous collision with the railings. looming ahead.

 -It seems that bad luck is still with us. We were riding in a group and I was tailing Franco, when he apparently collided with another rider and crashed right in front of me. I had no possibilities to avoid both Franco and his bike, who were both lying on the track. I naturally opted to hit his bike instead of the rider and due to that impact my bike swerved off track and I had to jump off the bike before it hit the wall, an immensely disappointed Kallio described. 

 -As long as were are not able to compete for the top spots, it does not make such a big difference whether we make position 10 or 15 i the race. In my case it would have been crucial to ride all the laps of the race to gain valuable experience with the bike. My pace improved significantly on Sunday, so in a sense it would have been interesting to see how far it could have taken me, Kallio continued. 

 The Moto2 race season continues in mid June in Barcelona, on the track of Circuit de Catalunya. Kallio and his team, Italtrans, are planning to take back the missing laps and arrange a private test before the next GP. 

 -We are thinking of conducting a small test before my next race, because we need more time to work with the bike. My best guess is that the test will take place Aragon and then we’ll weigh the options how we will proceed to Barcelona. The next race is pretty similar in terms of settings and track form, so we need to reach a big improvement of the lap times of Mugello in order to be competitive in Barcelona, Kallio continued. 

 -We are still struggling with the same problems as during winter tests, especially concerning the behaviour of the front. There is no responsiveness, feeling or grip. Whatever changes we have made have only been a vague help or no help at all, and we are really hoping the issues are not due to tyres, since tyres we can’t change. We are working with all our might to fix the problems and  just have to proceed step by step. I really hope we would get our thing together soon, since I haven’t lost my hunger for the podiums, Kallio finished. 

 Moto2 results, GP 6/18, Mugello Italy

1. Tito Rabat 39.40,545
2. Johann Zarco + 0,308
3. Dominique Aegerter + 5,280
4. Sam Lowes + 5,554
5. Luis Salom + 7,493
---
Mika Kallio retired

Moto2 world championship standing after GP’s 6/18 

 1. Johann Zarco 109

2. Tito Rabat 78
3. Thomas Luthi 68
4. Sam Lowes 67
5. Jonas Folger 57
---
10. Mika Kallio 31

 

« Back