Interview Mika Kallio: "We'll make pressure - every time and everywhere!"

Red Bull KTM star Mika Kallio is fighting an exciting head-to-head battle with Marco Simoncelli for the crown in the 250 cc World Championship.

Kallio talks to KTM Racing News about the perspectives for the final part of this year's season - and how he plans reclaim the leadership in the championship standings.

Kallio: Our Technical Director Harald Bartol brought some new cylinders and improved mappings for the engine electronics. I tried the upgrades on both bikes and both feel quite good.

Of course it is difficult to compare what we had before the summer break and what we have now. There were a few weeks with no practice and no races and you don't remember exactly, because if there is a difference, it is quite small.

The important thing is that we seem to be able to keep up with Aprilia. I had a chance to ride with a couple of Aprilia riders, and it looks as if our performance is quite similar.

Our engine was competitive even at the last race at Sachsenring and now we have made another step towards what the Aprilias are like. We've caught up and this is good. Everything seems to be okay for this weekend, no problem.

As far as the chassis goes, we have the same specs that we had at the Sachsenring. Our base set-up for this track is good already. The only thing we are trying is a different triple clamp to see if we can further improve.

Kallio: For sure it will be very exciting for everyone, most of all for the riders! Of course I wanted to keep the first position in the championship before the summer break but we couldn't do any better than we did at Sachsenring and fourth place there was the result.

I was a bit disappointed after the race but now my feeling is very good. I am happy that we are back on the race track and it's very important that we started well from the first free practice session.

When you start the season you should immediately make a good result then you have a good feeling for the next races to come. Now we're in a similar position after the break. If we do well here, it will be much easier to keep the momentum going in the next races.

Kallio: Everyone in the team knows that we must work at 100 percent all the time, and everybody has given 100 percent. It's the same with me: Whenever I go out on the track, I push as much I can, and always give the maximum. It doesn't make a difference that we are second in the point standings:

Everybody in my team wants to beat our competitors and to get back to the top, so the job just continues with the same effort and hard work as always.

Kallio: He and his team were very strong in the last five races. At the moment, it doesn't look as if they have that many weak points. The key to beating them is a lot of hard work.

If we try to find some weak points, we maybe have to think about how Simoncelli performed last year or in the years before, when he crashed a lot.

This year, he hardly crashed at all, but if we can keep the pressure up, maybe, towards the end of the season, he will start making mistakes again. Our plan therefore is to put pressure on him, everywhere and every time.

Kallio: I used the summer break to relax a lot. We had a week's holiday in Lapland. I went fishing on the lake, saw my friends and spent time with the family. But of course, everyone on this level of competition has to play some sport to keep fit.

I did a lot of bicycling, and also rode some Supermoto. Now everything looks really good - I am in shape, the feeling with the bike is great, and I can't wait to go out and race again!"

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- KTM-Sportmotorcycles, Mattighofen-