MotoGP rookie Mika Kallio proved his winter testing performances were no fluke by setting the seventh fastest lap time on his official premier-class debut, during Friday practice in Qatar.
The Finn may have lapped 1.446sec behind factory Ducati star Casey Stoner, but he was the next best Desmosedici rider after the Australian and only 0.227sec away from fourth placed Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).
“Today everything went quite well,” said the ever-calm Kallio. “I made it to be really constant and this gives me a lot of trust for Sunday’s race. It will surely be important to work well tomorrow and then see how the race will go. I am really happy with this start. The team has worked really well. It has been really strange to work so intensively on two bikes due to the 15 minutes cut, but we will have to get used to it.”
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