Philosophical Bartol reflects on lucky win

A stroke of good fortune for the Red Bull KTM 250 team last weekend at the expense of last lap crashers Alvaro Bautista and Marco Simoncelli in Jerez gave Mika Kallio an unexpected victory, prompting a philosophical reaction from team chief Harald Bartol.

The Austrian KTM director saw Kallio start from second on the gird and run in third position for most of the 250cc Jerez contest, before a technical problem with Bautista's Mapfre Aspar Aprilia machine caused Metis Gilera's Simoncelli to collide with him, opening the door for a simple Kallio triumph.

`Sometimes you have to have some luck,´ mused Bartol. `It´s not the way we like to win, but that is racing and it´s a shame for the other two guys. First of all it looked like it was Simoncelli´s fault but I heard Bautista had a little problem with his engine and that´s why he ran into him. I feel bad for them, but sometimes we need luck and a win is a win!´

Finnish 25 year-old Kallio is tipped for a strong title challenge in 2008 and having also achieved a podium result at round one in Qatar Bartol is backing him to keep producing the goods.

`When you look at the championship these are important points. Mika had a problem during the race with his tyres, but in the end we got 25 points as a present and that´s fine for us!´, he joked.

`It looks like he is very strong this year mentally and he is consistent. The important thing is when you cannot win to pick up points too and I think he is doing very well.´