Kallio’s qualifying result at Misano an expected disappointment

Moto2-pilot Mika Kallio continued his troublesome weekend in Misano, San Marino, by finishing 23rd in the qualifying practice of Saturday. The fast Finn and his current bike still don’t seem to get along in the slightest way and Kallio clocked his best lap time at a whole 1,639 seconds slower than the fastest man of the day, Johann Zarco. Kallio and his team experimented with a few adjustments to the bike during the FP3 of Saturday morning, but sadly these changes had no effect to the behaviour of the bike and Kallio’s performance. 

-During the last free practice we made the bike a bit longer by changing the length of the swing arm, but since this did not help find the lost front feel, we reversed the changes for the afternoon. During qualifying I did everything I could, but found myself finally at grid position 23. This was really not a big surprise, but expecting the worst does not reduce the amount of disappointment experienced. What concerns me, is that I seem to have lost the last remainder of confidence and good pace with this current set-up, Kallio commented.

The tyre-related issues and constant changes in settings have darkened Kallio’s and his team’s mood to an extent where they seem lost for solutions, but Kallio is not going to give up. 

-When I have to choose between either a working front or any rear grip at all, the situation is tricky. We ride with such small marginals, that when there is no feel to the tyres, the fight is lost before it even began. If I try to push the slightest bit more, I will end in the gravel instantly, Kallio stated. 

-It is also disastrous to see how huge the difference in our performance is on this track, when riding either with harder or softer option tyres. Our only hope for the race on Sunday, is that other riders would also opt for the hard option tyres. This way the gap is not so big, but I doubt this will be the case, as most teams seem to prefer the softer tyre in this circuit, Kallio finished. 

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