KTM riders in high spirits

From KTM Racing

JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, SPAIN -- KTM 250 riders wrapped up the official preseason testing session in Jerez last Thursday on the high note with Repsol-KTM rider Julian Simon in fifth, and the official factory riders Mika Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama in a very close sixth and seventh position.

All three riders were consistently among the top performers in the three days of testing on the Spanish circuit and all agreed they could have gone even faster. Regrettably the final decisive run for good lap times was cut short when the last session was red-flagged after a crash 10 minutes from the end.

KTM's Technical Director Harald Bartol also expressed satisfaction after the tests.

"Our good results at this and our previous test in Valencia confirm the progress we've made in the development of our bike," he said. "We addressed the reliability problems of the past, and the engines are working so well now that we have healthy base from which we can fine-tune the bike and be competitive at every race.

"Another significant step was the new chassis that we introduced back in November, and which seems to give the riders the feel and the handling they wanted. The fact that all three of our riders are within the top group speaks for itself and boosts the confidence of us all."

In the 125 cc class, Raffaele de Rosa from Team Onde 2000 KTM was fastest of the seven-rider strong KTM line-up in this category, with official Red Bull KTM factory rider Randy Krummenacher still shaking off the winter break and lagging behind in 22nd position.

Young Spanish Repsol KTM rookie Marc Marquez ran into bad luck and fractured the radius and ulma of his right arm in a crash on the second day of testing.

Day Three Times
GP 250
1. Tom Luthi (CH) Aprilia 1:43.208; 2. Marco Simoncelli (I) Gilera 1:43.209 3. Alvaro Bautista (E) Aprilia 1:43.529; 4. Alex Debon (E) Aprilia 1:43.629; 5. Julian Simon (E) KTM 1:43.802; 6. Mika Kallio (SF) KTM 1:43.859; 7. Hiroshi Aoyama (J) KTM 1:43.869
GP 125
1. Bradley Smith (Aprilia) 1:47.820; 2. Sergio Gadea (Aprilia) 1:47.952; 3. Stefan Bradl (D) Aprilia 1:48.118 4. Raffaele De Rosa (I) KTM 1:48.183; 5. Mike di Meglio (F) Derbi 1:48.244