Place of birth: ValkeakoskiMika Kallio made his MotoGP debut in 2009, riding for the Pramac Ducati team. The Finn consistently outpaced team-mate and fellow rookie Niccolo Canepa, resulting in a brief stint at the factory team when Casey Stoner skipped three events through sickness, but was also accident prone.
Kallio took a best race result of seventh on the Marlboro bike, and eighth with Pramac, but was only 15th in the final standings and missed the US GP due to a hand injury.
Nevertheless, his raw speed was enough to secure a second season at Pramac for 2010, where he will be teamed with Aleix Espargaro.
Kallio, a multiple 125cc champion in his native Finland, made his 125cc grand prix debut at the 2001 German GP and finished his first full season eleventh in the championship, for the Ajo Motorsport Honda team.
Kallio then switched to the factory KTM team midway through 2003, but had just two podiums to his credit by the end of the following year. However, 2005 was a breakthrough season for the Finn, who scored his first four victories plus a further six podiums to finish second in the world championship standings.
Kallio was 125cc title runner-up once again in 2006, before making an instant impact on his debut season in the quarter-litre class, with two race wins. The 25-year-old made an excellent start to the 2008 championship, winning three of the first eight races, but steadily lost ground to Gilera's Marco Simoncelli - who took the title lead at round ten in Germany.
Mika then lost second in the standings to Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista but comfortably remained the top KTM rider, with the new best Austrian machine that of team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama in seventh, 57 points behind Kallio.
Carrier Highlights
A newcomer to MotoGP with the Alice Team, Mika Kallio leaves behind a successful apprenticeship in the lower cylinder categories, although he was never quite able to take a world title.
His father was a top-level rider, and it was this influence that stopped him from following in the four-wheeled footsteps of some of his country's more famous sportsmen such as Hakkinen and Makinen.
Kallio won the 125cc Finish Championship for three consecutive years and has also been the national 'ice-bike' champion, a discipline which uses specially adapted motocross bikes on a frozen road racing track before taking fifth overall in the European Championship in 2001.
The same year he made his World Championship debut in Germany and earned a full time ride with the Ajo Motorsport team for the next season, in which he was the best rookie in 11th overall. The following year he also took 11th in the Championship, with his first podium in Sepang, having joined the new KTM team midway through the season.
Two years of success with KTM in 125cc gave him the runner-up spot in both 2005 and 2006, but despite the departure of previous World Champions Thomas Luthi and Alvaro Bautista he opted himself for a move up to 250cc. In his debut season in the quarter-litre class he won races in Japan and Valencia, and became a firm contender for the title in 2008.
A sterling start to his final campaign in 250cc put Kallio firmly in the driving seat, but a further two wins were not enough to deny Marco Simoncelli the title as the Finn´s form dipped. He now attempts to get to grips with the Desmosedici GP9 Sat as part of a more factory-supported Ducati satellite team, in his MotoGP debut.
His father was a top-level rider, and it was this influence that stopped him from following in the four-wheeled footsteps of some of his country's more famous sportsmen such as Hakkinen and Makinen.
Kallio won the 125cc Finish Championship for three consecutive years and has also been the national 'ice-bike' champion, a discipline which uses specially adapted motocross bikes on a frozen road racing track before taking fifth overall in the European Championship in 2001.
The same year he made his World Championship debut in Germany and earned a full time ride with the Ajo Motorsport team for the next season, in which he was the best rookie in 11th overall. The following year he also took 11th in the Championship, with his first podium in Sepang, having joined the new KTM team midway through the season.
A sterling start to his final campaign in 250cc put Kallio firmly in the driving seat, but a further two wins were not enough to deny Marco Simoncelli the title as the Finn´s form dipped. He now attempts to get to grips with the Desmosedici GP9 Sat as part of a more factory-supported Ducati satellite team, in his MotoGP debut.
