Kallio to race with shoulder injury

The Finn struggled through qualifying and was slowest, but is confident he can cope with the race distance.

"Fortunately, the shoulder is not broken, the doctors of the mobile clinic have made some infiltration to allow me to do better qualifications," Kallio said.

"Despite the pain, I really wanted to take part in qualifying and I tried to make the perfect balanced bike for the race of tomorrow.

"Unfortunately, the shoulder pain and the time that I have lost this morning have only allowed me to reduced by half a second the time that I achieved in the practice yesterday.

"To start again from the bottom of the grid is not so nice, but I will give my best to repay the tremendous work that the team have done for me."

Pramac Ducati's technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini remains optimistic that Kallio will be able to compete more effectively in the race.

"Mika has a lot of pain in the shoulder and this didn't allowed him to push hard in qualifying today," said Sterlacchini.

"We hope that tomorrow he willfeel less pain and that he becomes a protagonist in a great race."

Sterlacchini added that he was "delighted" with the performance of Aleix Espargaro on Pramac's second bike, as the team's under-pressure rookie took a career-best 10th on the grid.

"I start out with an enormous charge for tomorrow, I hope to be able to finally repay the confidence that the team has placed in me during this difficult start of the championship," said Espargaro.