15th place in Valencia qualifying - “Might be better to ride upside down!”

The final Grand Prix of season 2015 takes place this weekend on the Circuit of Ricardo Tormo, Valencia. Moto2-rider Mika Kallio did not shine as bright as the Spanish sun during the qualifying session of Saturday and after the fullest of efforts he was placed in position 15 on the start grid. 

Kallio was disappointed and frustrated after the session was over. 

-The one second gap the the front is something that has become way too familiar during this season. It seems to follow us to the very last race and there is pretty much nothing left to be done. The bike felt a bit better today, but this slight improvement was unfortunately not visible in my lap times. It feels that no matter what we do, the feeling and performance level remains exactly the same. I wonder if I should ride upside down, Kallio huffed. 

As tradition has shown this season, the morning session was again bit better for Kallio due to cooler weather conditions. 

-Today has been identical to so many other days this season. Mornings are always better and during the afternoon we are in the shit, because I start to lose whatever bits and pieces of grip I might have had earlier. Nothing new here, Kallio continued. 

-During the qualifying we began with a used softer tyre at the back and halfway to the session we changed the rear tyre to a new one. Even though rear grip was better, the front became even worse and my lap times were actually slower. It really does not make any sense how much problems these tyres are giving me at the moment, Kallio stated. 

In the Moto2-class all riders race with identical engines, which they are not allowed to modify. The engines are distributed randomly among teams and sometimes the engine performance is not a hundred percent there, even though all of them are meant to be similar. Typically some engines might have a slightly weaker performance level, which is visible by a lack of top speed by  5-10km/h. 

-We received an engine for this race, which seems to be 5km/h short of top speed. The rules do not allow us to change the engine, so there is nothing to be done, expect hope too many will not pass me on straights at the race, Kallio continued. 

The final race of the season looms ahead and Kallio is already looking forward to his new challenges as a test rider for the KTM MotoGP-team. 

-We’ll do our best on Sunday and then move on. I am relieved this long and troublesome season is then wrapped up and I’ll do my very most to make a good race tomorrow, Kallio finished.

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