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TALMACSI AND KALLIO QUALIFY ON THE FRONT ROW Red Bull KTM riders Gabor Talmacsi and Mika Kallio have qualified on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand at Sepang. Talmacsi set the third fastest time with Kallio just behind in fourth place. Both riders made a dramatic improvement from Friday’s first qualifying session, as did teammate Julian Simon. The Spanish teenager will start from eighth position on the second row after slicing two seconds from his best time in the first qualifying session. He is confident he can race with the leading group. Pole position was taken by Swiss rider Thomas Luthi who is locked in a tight battle with Kallio for the world championship . Just three points separates the pair with Luthi leading going into this race. Qualifying was run in hot, humid and sunny conditions with a track surface temperature of 45 degrees. Similar, energy-sapping weather, is forecast for tomorrow’s 19 lap race. Overnight changes to suspension and engine settings produced increased performance by all three KTm riders of fast and wide Sepang circuit. However track conditions were not perfect with lower grips levels and a dirty surface, with laps times more than half a second outside the track record held by Lucio Cecchinello,. GABOR TALMACSI #14 - Third - 2’14.903 “Riding alone I cannot find the fastest rhythm but at the end I could get a tow from Simoncelli and the fast time came easy -- he brought me to the front, fantastic. The bike is fast, no problem, we just have to decide on the he race tyre and look at the front settings, it is moving around a little. And I have to think about doing the fast times by myself. ” MIKA KALLIO #36 - Fourth - 2’14.964 “Much better than yesterday but still not perfect. The front-end is OK now but I still have a little rear chatter in the slow corners. The problem today was I had a lot of riders following me, waiting for a tow, and I did not want to give them a slipstream and a fast time. Near the end I did a 14.9s lap and then tried for a faster time but made a small mistake which spoilt that lap. For the race I think it is possible to fight with Luthi.” JULIAN SIMON #60 - Eighth - 2’15.326 “This was very good work from the team. I came in with three minutes to go and fitted new tyre and then did my fast lap. The suspension settings were much better today, more feeling, and the engine was very fast. I did my time riding alone so I’m confident for the race.” Harald Bartol - Technical and Managing Director “The weather was more stable today and our performance much better -- three riders in the he top eight. Now we just have to make sure we are fast and competitive for the race.”
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