The sun did not rise for Kallio in Motegi QP

Mika Kallio faced yet another difficult qualifying practice in the Japanese GP at Motegi Twin Ring track. Kallio managed to push himself to 20th place on the starting grid and he was immensely disappointed with the result. Johann Zarco rode to pole position and beat Kallio by 1,922 seconds. A failed strategy for the bike’s set ups left Kallio far behind of the lead and he admitted that the day did not proceed at all as planned. 

-This morning was not so bad, but during qualifying we were struggling enormously. We managed to rearrange the extra weights back where they worked well on the bike, but that’s the only positive aspect of today. All the things we did to test some new set ups backfired on us and my riding was a complete mess. I cannot believe how slow we were today, Kallio sighed. 

After Friday we decided to change the weight distribution of the bike and lengthened the bike by 20millimetres. We were able to add weight to the front, but upon making the bike a bit higher in addition, we needed to rearrange all other settings as well, including suspension. We suspected these changes would be for the better, but we were wildly wrong this time, Kallio continued. 

The race of Sunday is a second one for Kallio as a rider for Qatari QMMF-team. The start for the weekend has not been as promising as during the previous GP in Aragon and changing weather conditions might bring along additional surprises for tomorrow’s race. 

-It is hard to say what will happen on Sunday. We’ll go back to the settings used in Aragon, but I am not sure if they work on this track. It’s hard, since we have had practically no time at all for testing with the new bike. I look forward to making a good start and then will see where it gets me this time, Kallio commented. 

-The weather forecast promises some heavy rain for tomorrow, so if the track is wet, anything can happen. This might not be an advantage for us this time, since I haven’t ridden a single lap with the Speed Up-bike in wet conditions. Come what may, I’ll do my best, Kallio finished.

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