Source: Supplied.

KTM’s MotoGP World Championship debut ended with a technical fault on lap 20, however the impressive Austrian brand will take a series of important lessons learned from its wildcard in the Valencia finals.

The factory effort entered the final round of this season to gain race mileage ahead of its fulltime debut in 2017, with Mika Kallio qualifying 20th – ahead of Tito Rabat and Yonny Hernandez – and just 1.548s from Jorge Lorenzo’s pole time.

Race day wasn’t so kind to Kallio however, the mechanical forcing KTM Factory Racing’s RC16 out of the race at two-thirds distance. Still, the Moto3 title-winning factory was encouraged by its performance across the weekend.

“Basically the start was more or less okay then I tried to choose a good line in the opening few corners and I think I gained a few positions,” Kallio said. “I was where I expected to be and I was fighting with the other guys in my group. I managed to stay on course in the first laps and this was positive and I could also see the difference between my bike and the others – where we are okay and where we need to improve.

“After six laps I felt something happened on the bike going into the corner. I opened the throttle, the power went down and there was no acceleration. It seems there was a sensor problem and this affected the electronics and the controls.

“The rear tyre started to spin and the grip went down fast, so riding became more complicated and the other riders started to pull away. It was a shame because it would have been good to see what we could have done. Anyway up to the point we had the problems the feeling was good. I’m just disappointed we didn’t finish the race.”

KTM Motorsport director Pit Beirer commented: “Despite the outcome, in principle I’m still satisfied because we understood the task and nothing happened that we had not reckoned with. But what was extremely good to see was how the team reacted, because on Friday we simply didn’t have the speed that we had in the last test three weeks ago. They reacted overnight and prepared the bike so that Mika had a good feeling, times improved and we had the basis for the race today.

“In the race, the distance from the front was more or less okay. By that I mean we had no reason to be pleased, but also none to be unhappy. Realistically speaking we are where we should be. I was happy with the way the team worked together. KTM is a family and no-one in the team is unhappy because we understand how difficult it is to be part of this elite class.”

KTM’s MotoGP technical director Sebastian Risse said it was still a satisfying effort up until the issue caused the race day DNF: “As far as the reliability of the bike is concerned, except for the race, everything was without problems. But what counts was the painful learning curve of today. In principle we were satisfied with the performance here, and with the reliability, right up to the incident today.”

The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team now takes part in the official IRTA tests in Valencia on Tuesday and Wednesday when the 2017 factory riders Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith will take control of the KTM RC16 for the first time.