Kallio steps down for final races

From motogp.com

Mika Kallio will not ride in the final two rounds of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship for the Pramac Racing team after both parties opted to end their partnership early.

Kallio has continued to struggle with a shoulder injury sustained at Le Mans towards the start of the season and will now return to his native Finland to continue his recovery in preparation for next season. The team will announce his replacement for the Estoril and Valencia rounds in the coming days.

“We were already thinking about what we could do with this problem with the shoulder when we were in Japan, and these three races in a row have not been so good for the pain,” explained Kallio. “Throughout the race and especially in the last part there is a pain, and in Japan we decided we would do these two races in Malaysia and Australia and then see what the situation was. Now, after this race, we've decided it's better to stop and try to be ready for next season and let it repair physically.

“I need to say thanks to the team. Even if the season was not very good for us we have had a lot of good times and thanks to Paolo (Campinoti, Team Principal) because he gave me this opportunity to stop after this race and recover for next season. Of course it's sad to stop like this but I think this was the best way for everyone at the moment.”

Campinoti said: “I never like to find myself in these situations, but when a rider asks you to not run because he cannot give 100 percent for the team you must accept his sincere gesture and go through with that. On behalf of the Pramac Racing team and our partners I would like thank Mika and wish him a wonderful future full of success and happiness. Mika has always demonstrated great honesty and given the best he can in these two years, and we'll always consider him one of our family because of this.”

On his future plans, Kallio added: “At the moment I don't know exactly what will happen. As I have said before the main priority was to remain in this class, but as everybody knows there are not so many places and it's difficult to find an opening there. So I need to look in Moto2 as well, and also superbikes.

"But at the moment I think Moto2 will be the best option for me. There are two, three, four teams that are possibilities for me and at the moment I don't know what will happen. I think maybe in a few days or one week even we will know more, and for sure after the Valencia race when there is the first test I will be there.”