KTM 20th for Grand Prix debut

KTM Factory Racing test rider Mika Kallio will start the Austrian manufacturer’s first Grand Prix from 20^th on the grid after a respectable qualifying session for the Finnish rider in Valencia.

Friday turned out to be a disappointing start to proceedings for KTM, who ended the day over three seconds off the pace. Despite this being their debut weekend, they still expected much more. Problems with rear traction especially hindered the Austrian marque, though they were able to somewhat rectify this issue today.

Kallio ended third practice last on the time sheets but only 2.5 seconds off the pace having found eight tenths in FP3 on his Friday best. The Finnish rider made another massive improvement in qualifying, shaving a further seven tenths of a second off of his lap time to a 1m32.092s.

Though 20^th may not sound hugely impressive, Kallio was only just over a second away from the top 10 and actually qualified in the exact same position as Suzuki did on their wild-card debut back in 2014. It’s also worth noting that KTM are going up against the most competitive grid in Grand Prix history and a grid that features no open class machinery, which wasn’t the case in 2014.

Kallio says that he is confident of being able to challenge some of the riders around him tomorrow, and reckons that the bike is better over race distance than it is on one lap pace, though admits that work still needs to be done to improve rear grip.

“Yesterday we weren’t happy how we started the weekend and the lap time wasn’t where we should have been,” he said.

“We knew where we should be and demonstrated that we could improve the lap time and there are guys behind us now – so we can fight with them, which is important for the race. I’m really satisfied by the laps we did, because there were a few good laps and not just one.

“We’ve improved the spinning from yesterday but this is one point where we could do more – we’ll try and work more in warm up to see if we can find something for that. After warm up we’ll see because at the moment we’re not sure which solutions we will do. But I think we’re better over a longer distance than just one lap – so I’m confident we can do better in the race than today.”