Mika Kallio

The lost five points turned out to be incredibly valuable to Kallio, as he only finished 5th in Australia, had to retire in Turkey, and went into the final round in Valencia, with a 23-point deficit compared to Lüthi, meaning he needed a win, with the Swiss rider scoring no more than 2 points.

Kallio won the final race in Valencia, Lüthi coming home in 9th, meaning Kallio lost the world title by just five points, the exact difference between first place and second place championship points.

Both riders had four wins during the season, but Kallio would have had five if not for Qatar, thus winning the title with equal points, but more race wins.

Talmácsi was fired after the season finale at Valencia.

Kallio ended the season with 78 points, 11th in the rider's championship, and won Rookie of the Year, in front of fellow rookies Héctor Barberá, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo.

Mika Kallio (born 8 November 1982) is a Finnish Grand Prix motorcycle racer, currently serving as the lead test and development rider for the Red Bull KTM team in MotoGP.

Born in Valkeakoski, Kallio started racing in 1997 and won the 1998 Finnish championship in road racing, with further success in the competition in 1999 and 2000.

During 2000, he also became the Nordic champion, after finishing second in the prior year.

While Kallio pursued his road racing goals, the Finn has also scored plenty of success in ice racing back home in Finland, having achieved the Finnish motorcycle ice racing championship in 2000, 2004 and 2005 in the 125cc class.

He debuted in the 125cc World Championship with the Finnish rookie team Ajo Motorsport in the 2001 German Grand Prix and was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" with the team in 2002.

Kallio made his debut in the 125cc World Championship as a wildcard rider at the 2001 German Grand Prix, but did not finish the race.

Continuing with Ajo Motorsport and the Honda RS125R for a full season in 2002, he finished in the points ten times, nine times in the top-10, with a 5th place in Jerez being the highest of the year.

After moving to the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team during the 2003 season, he finished runner-up in the 125cc class in both 2005 and 2006, and also finished runner-up in the 2014 Moto2 World Championship.

He started the 2003 season with Ajo Motorsport, partnering Masao Azuma, but halfway through the season, following him outperforming factory KTM rider Arnaud Vincent, the riders were switched, Kallio being promoted to Red Bull KTM, KTM's factory team.

Signing 2003 Rookie of the Year Casey Stoner to partner 2002 Rookie of the Year Kallio, Red Bull KTM went all in for the 2004 season, but their bikes were full of reliability issues, Stoner being forced to retire five times, and Kallio eight times (including three times from the first six races, and five times from the last seven races of the year).

At 500cc level, Kallio also won the title in 2004 and 2006.

The 2005 season would be his breakout year.

Stoner moved up to the 250cc category, with Gábor Talmácsi being brought in to be Kallio's new teammate.

Kallio started the year well, with a 2nd place in Jerez, before taking his first championship pole position and victory, at the second round of the 2005 season in Estoril.

In 2006, Kallio was again a challenger for the 125cc title, and although he produced his career's best season, the young Finn was outshone by Álvaro Bautista, who won the title by 76 points.

Kallio was forced to settle for the runner-up spot in the championship again, although he did finish a full 65 points ahead of Héctor Faubel in third position.

Kallio scored three victories, in Shanghai, Assen and Motegi, had four pole positions, and finished on the podium 11 times (three victories, seven 2nd places, and a 3rd place) during the 2006 campaign.

At the end of the year, viewers of the Finnish motorsport television series Ruutulippu voted Kallio the Finnish Motorsportsman of the Year for the second year running.

He collected 33.1% of all votes and finished in front of enduro world champion Samuli Aro, WRC runner-up Marcus Grönholm and F1 star Kimi Räikkönen.

For the 2007 season, Kallio moved up to KTM's squad in the 250cc category, riding alongside Hiroshi Aoyama.

After a difficult start to the season with mechanical woes at Qatar and Spain, Kallio would consistently be fighting around the top six positions, finishing 6th in Turkey, 5th in China, 7th in France, 6th in Catalonia, 6th in Great Britain, and 8th in the Netherlands.

The turning point of the season would be at Germany, where Kallio took his debut pole position and podium finish in the class, coming home in 2nd, behind teammate Aoyama, to cap a fine 1–2 for KTM.

Moving up to MotoGP full-time for 2009 and 2010, he obtained the "Rookie of the Year" award in his first season in the premier class.

He ended the season 10th in the championship, with 86 points.

Kallio finished the year 11th in the standings, with 88 points.

He went on to take another pole in Shanghai but ended the race only in 11th, followed by a 3rd place in Le Mans, another pole with a retirement in Mugello, a pole position and a 3rd place in Barcelona, a fifth consecutive pole position in Assen, followed by a retirement in the race, and a sixth pole in Donnington, where he ended the race in 7th.

Following the summer break, he scored his seventh pole position of the year in Germany, his fifth consecutive pole position, both records in the category, and followed it up with a dominant win, setting fastest lap as well.

His pole position streak was halted by main championship rival Thomas Lüthi in Brno, with Lüthi dominating the weekend and winning the race, Kallio coming in second.

The two would keep exchanging blows, Kallio winning in Japan and Lüthi in second, Lüthi winning in Malaysia, Kallio finishing in second.

An infamous incident happened in the race in Qatar, with only four races remaining.

Kallio started from pole, and led the entire race, closely followed by teammate Gábor Talmácsi.

Before the race, Talmácsi had been ordered by the KTM team to stay back and not to fight with Kallio, seeing how he was not a title contender, and would only take away points.

The Hungarian rider stayed behind Kallio the whole race, but in the final lap's finish straight, pulled out from behind Kallio's slipstream and passed the Finn on the last few meters of the race, to take the win by 0.017 seconds.

Talmácsi said that he thought there was one more lap to go, despite the team showing them the board before the final lap, from pitwall.

He immediately took his career's best fourth place in Czech Republic, and scored his first ever podium in the 125cc class, a 2nd place at Sepang behind Dani Pedrosa.