Front row start for Aoyama and Kallio in Japan

Red Bull KTM stars Hiroshi Aoyama and Mika Kallio secured front row starting positions for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix proving both riders are completely at home on the Motegi circuit.

Both riders are determined to continue KTM's amazing success story at Motegi, where Aoyama rode to victory in the 250 cc race of 2006, and Kallio repeated the success last year. Kallio has also won in Motegi on a KTM 125 in 2005 and 2006.

Big in Japan

Aoyama's strong practice performance was a result of small and but continuous improvements on his KTM FRR 250. The Japanese ace found his best form of the current season at the end of August at Misano, Italy. He and his team tried a new chassis set-up with a steeper steering angle that made his bike even more agile in tight corners and for fast direction changes.

Unfortunately Aoyama was denied the chance to prove himself in Misano after he was victim of an unlucky crash then the next race at Indianapolis was cancelled after the remnants of Hurricane Ike dumped torrential rain on the circuit and wind battered surrounding superstructures.

The Japanese rider now hopes that his luck will change around at his home Grand Prix on a circuit where he has scored two of his five career victories.

Kallio was involved in the same incident at Misano, and missed out on another chance to catch up in the world championship rankings due to the cancellation of the Indianapolis Grand Prix.

The Finn is now back to full strength, and determined to fight to keep his title chances alive. The 25-year-old took some risks with the set-up of his bike in recent races, but has returned to more basic settings for the race tomorrow.

Spanish Repsol KTM rider Julian Simon is also a force to be reckoned with in Sunday's GP. With only minutes to go in the final qualifying, Simon held third position and seemed set to join his fellow KTM riders on the front row of the grid. He was only pushed back in the last seconds of the session.

"This was my best practice result this year, so I'm quite happy and confident. We found a good set-up and the right tyre choice, and even though practice and race are two different things, everything is possible tomorrow.

I wasn't very lucky in the last few races, so I hope we can turn this around for my home Grand Prix. I have a lot of family, friends and fans here at Motegi and I really hope we will be able to celebrate a good race and a good result!"

"We also played with a steeper steering angle for more agility, and in wet conditions like at Indianapolis, or on the damp track here at Motegi in the first free practice session yesterday morning, it seemed to be quite good. But on a dry track, it turned out that this wasn't the right choice for me. I didn't get a good feeling for the bike, and whenever I pushed, the front seemed to tuck under, and I seemed to be close to crashing.

We therefore took another approach for today's final qualifying, and basically went back to the good and reliable base that we'd established before. There are still a few things about the front of the bike that I don't like, but we are on the right track, and I am sure we can improve our set-up further in tomorrow's warm-up.

Simoncelli is very fast once again, but another rider was in my way on my fastest lap, so I could have been closer for sure. I am ready to put up a fight. I have three victories to my name here at Motegi and this track has always been good for KTM. I hope we can keep our good record tomorrow!"

"The riding styles of Mika and Hiro are completely different so they are taking a different approach with the set-up of our bike. What counts is that both of them found the solutions they need for the race here in Japan.

All three of our 250 riders have been very fast and competitive today, so I think we can look forward to an exciting race and strong results!"

KTM 125 cc rider Tomoyoshi Koyama proved there's no place like home on Saturday coming in fastest of all the KTMs on the Motegi Circuit.

The ISPA KTM Aran rider rounded up Saturday's qualifying in eleventh on the grid, two places in from of the Spanish teenager Marc Marquez on the Repsol KTM in thirteenth place.

German KTM rookie Jonas Folger rode to thirty first place and he goes into tomorrow's race wanting to gain more GP experience and finish as close to the points as he can.

Floger is riding in Randy Krummenacher's slot while the Red Bull KTM rider takes a two race sabbatical to try to recover health and form. The Swiss teenager had a major setback at the beginning of the season when his spleen had to be removed after a mountain bike accident.

Jonas Folger said he was committed to try to improve his riding."The bike runs wide in some of the corners, and I can't keep the cornering lines the way I'd like to. But more than anything, I still need to improve my riding. Braking is okay, but I am still struggling to hit the right lines and to open the throttle early enough. I hope I can improve in the race tomorrow!" 

KTM-Sportmotorcycles AG, Mattighofen