The Pramac Ducati HQ is less than 100kms from the Mugello circuit in Italy, so this weekend’s MotoGP race is effectively the team’s home race.

Aleix Espargaro will be looking to maintain momentum after his top 10 finish in the last race at Le Mans, while Mika Kallio faces different challenges as he continues his struggle with a shoulder injury.

Espargaro and Kallio look ahead to Mugello below:

Paolo Campinoti – Team Principal Pramac Racing
“Despite our riders have had mixed results, I am fully satisfied with the result obtained on the track of Le Mans. Mika has shown great courage to run in those conditions, has struggled to resist the temptation to retreat and has brought home three very important World Championship points. Aleix has demonstrated the enormous value that he has, I hope that this event marks the turning point to his season. He has been very quick for all the weekend and had the best on some riders with much more experience than him. The Italian Grand Prix in Mugello is what we considered our home Grand Prix, the Pramac headquarters are less than one hundred kilometers away from the track. Here we have always had good results including three third places, two with Biaggi and one with Barros. We have completed the race with both riders earning discrete placements in the past years. Our best year on this track was in 2003, when we finished third with Biaggi and fourth with Tamada. Last year things did not go well, Canepa was in fact ranked ninth, and Kallio thirteenth, the wish is that Mika can recoveries the best as possible from his injury and that he becomes the protagonist of a great race. ”

Mika Kallio
“On Sunday I will run my twentieth MotoGP Grand Prix, shame to reach this goal with the shoulder in these conditions. I had subject myself to certain therapies and medical care to feel less pain, but I cannot lift or bend my arm so well. I hope that on Sunday I’ll feel less pain so that this will allow me to ride in best way my bike. This is considered by my team the home circuit and I will give my best to get a good result. I never got outstanding results on this track, my best finish was fourth place in 2008 driving a 250. Last year I had some bad luck on this track, having started the race in seventeenth position, I had made a good comeback, I was in the sixth position behind the first after nine laps. I had a good race pace but I slipped during the tenth lap, this made me lose several positions. I still ended the race in thirteenth place. ”

Aleix Espargaro
“I can’t wait to run and to try my bike on this track. The Le Mans race has served to increase the confidence in my ability, I struggled and I had the best of some World Champions riders. The team has always been very careful to my instructions and has immediately found solutions to my problems and offered me a perfect bike, easy to drive. At Mugello I had run in the past only four times: two in 125 and two in 250, getting a ninth place as best result in 2008 while I was riding a 250. Here, I also hope, to instantly get confidence with the track so you can try to improve my lap times, lap after lap. ”

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