Kallio to race with shoulder injury
Mika Kallio will race in the French Grand Prix even though he dislocated his shoulder in his practice crash this morning
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.
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Hamilton accepts blame for incident with Albon in F1 Brazilian GP
Ferrari drivers called to F1 stewards over Brazilian GP collision
Will Alonso's Indy failure end the age of versatility?
KTM retains Pedrosa, Kallio as MotoGP test riders
KTM tester Kallio to replace Tech3's Lecuona at MotoGP Portugal finale
Kallio needs to "show something different" to keep KTM MotoGP ride
The F1 hero to zero dividing line that has never been so thin
Lamborghini not concerned over Le Mans reliability despite rain-interrupted test
The implications of F1's vote on a new points structure
Why Turkington's desire for a record fifth BTCC crown can't be questioned
Can anyone stop "changed" Bagnaia as Ducati tightens its grip on MotoGP?
The signs that MotoGP's Japanese powerhouses are changing for the better
The other Suzuki signing that could transform Honda's MotoGP form
How the MotoGP paddock has offered refuge to Suzuki's former team
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments