Crash For KTM's Aoyama, Kallio Fails To Finish In The Opening Race In Qatar

The first race of the 250cc MotoGP championships ended with little joy for KTM with Hiroshi Aoyama ending his challenge for points in the season’s opener as early as lap three when he crashed and slid off the Losail circuit in Qatar.Mika Kallio, who has advanced to the 250cc class this season and who won here last year in the 125cc, was no more fortunate and was forced to retire in the final stages of the race.

Road Racing Director Harald Bartol was nevertheless philosophic especially as the team had had a satisfactory result in the 125 cc race earlier in the day. “In the 250 race, we ran into tremendous bad luck with both our riders. Aoyama crashed because the rear end stepped out and piston broke on Kallio’s bike,” Bartol said.

At least in the early stages of the race it seemed as though Kallio was in for a good debut 250cc race. “I had a very good start but wasn’t able to follow the front group of riders. Only Roberto Locatelli had a similar pace to me and I able to follow him for most of the race, trailing him by roughly a second,” Kallio said. “I wasn’t able to attack because I lost tyre grip.” Kallio’s luck finally ran out with two laps to go when the piston broke, sending him back to the pits.

Results 250cc:

1, 1 Jorge Lorenzo - Aprilia 00:40:23:753
2, 3 Alex De Angelis - Aprilia 01:224
3, 80 Hector Barbera - Aprilia 02:911
4, 12 Thomas Luthi - Aprilia 03:234
5, 34 Andrea Dovizioso - Honda 12:698
6, 15 Roberto Locatelli - Gilera 21:568
7, 55 Yuki Takahashi - Honda 31:540
8, 60 Julian Simon Honda - 40:467
9, 58 Marco Simoncelli - Gilera 46:192
10, 73 Shuhei Aoyama - Honda 58:678
11, 41 Aleix Espargaro - Aprilia 01:02:762
12, 32 Fabrizio Lai - Aprilia 01:07:715
13, 14 Anthony West - Aprilia 01:10:622
14, 8 Ratthapark Wilairot - Honda 01:11:594
15, 28 Dirk Heidolf Aprilia - 01:12:499

Photographs by Milagro

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