Red Bull KTM 250 star and world championship leader Mika Kallio found himself in an unusual eleventh spot in qualifying for the Dutch TT and is still chasing the best set-up for Saturday's GP.
The 25-year-old Finn, winner of the British Grand Prix one week ago, found the set-up requirements of the Assen circuit with its high grip level and its banked corners completely different to the English Donington Park raceway. Kallio kept comparing two chassis versions and numerous set-up solutions, but also lost valuable track-time due to the changing weather conditions. He will try further modifications in the warm-up practice session Saturday morning.
Team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama had an early set-back with a crash on Thursday but recovered with a great performance on the second day of practice. Aoyama was one of the few riders who managed to go faster in final qualifying despite strong winds. He is now very confident for the race despite his poor thirteenth position on the grid. Repsol KTM 250 rider Julian Simon was fastest out of the three KTM riders in this category in seventh position.
Julian Simon (Repsol KTM 250 - seventh in 1:40.686)
"Our start into this weekend was really difficult, but yesterday afternoon, after various changes of tyres, chassis and suspension set-up, everything came together and I managed to do a good lap time. It was the result of hard work, and this gives me a great sense of achievement and confidence for the race. Today, things were difficult again after the early morning rain. I ran into problems with the front suspension. Things seemed to come together once again in the afternoon and I was even hoping to be able to further improve my lap time. But something went wrong with my front brake, on my final run and it stopped me from going faster. But I am still happy because I am on the second row on the grid. I hope to get a good start and to be able to fight among the top group of riders!"
Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM 250 - eleventh in 1:40.849)
"We found a good setting for the race in Donington last week, and then we arrived here with the same settings but they didn't work. I have some chattering on the front here and there, but the main problem is turning. There's is no particular point on the track where I am losing a lot; it's just a bit in every corner and that all adds up. I honestly don't know what will happen tomorrow. Of course we'll keep trying further modifications tomorrow in the warm-up. In fact we will try a radical change, because we have nothing to lose at the moment. We desperately have to try and find a solution for the race!"
Hiroshi Aoyama (Red Bull KTM 250 - thirteenth in 1:40.914)
"Today we improved our lap times, even though I am still thirteenth on the grid, which is not such a good place for us. But I had a crash yesterday and we had to recover from that and start all over again to try to find a good set-up. We lost time this morning with the wet weather conditions and conditions weren't as good as yesterday this afternoon. Most of the riders haven't been able to improve their lap times, so I am glad that I was one of the few who did. I am not particularly happy, but I am not disappointed either. Tomorrow, we will have different conditions again, so I hope we can also adjust to those conditions and have a good race!"
Harald Bartol (Technical Director)
"This track with its banked corners and with very good tyre grip puts a big load on the chassis and the suspension, which makes it easier to run into chattering and other chassis problems than on other circuits. Mika has been comparing the new and the old chassis and swapped bikes quite a bit, but we are still working to find the proper solutions for the race. Once again, the weather conditions cut our dry track time short, which made things even more difficult."
Images by Kirn F.
