Albacete, Spain – 15 November 2012: The Marc VDS Racing Team brought their 2012 Moto2 campaign to a close as they today concluded the final test of the season at the Albacete circuit in Spain. The two-day Albacete test was run in conjunction with engineers from Kalex, with the main focus being the further development of the Kalex Moto2 machine on which Scott Redding and Mika Kallio secured five podiums this season. The test was also the first opportunity for Livio Loi to test the Kalex-KTM he will ride for the Marc VDS Racing Team in next year’s Moto3 World Championship. The 15-year-old Belgian, whose Moto3 experience has so far been limited to the European and Spanish Championships on a standard Honda, declared himself impressed with the Kalex-KTM after improving his lap times significantly over the two days. While the Albacete test marks the end of the season for Redding and Kallio, who are both looking forward to the winter break, Loi will contest the final round of the CEV Spanish Championship at Valencia this weekend. The Marc VDS Racing Team will return to the track for preseason testing in February, starting at Valencia, before moving on to Jerez for the final two IRTA organised tests. Scott Redding #45: “We were lucky with the weather here the last two days, it wasn’t perfect but at least we got some dry testing time. We managed to test quite a few things; some worked and some we’ll need to reassess during preseason testing next year, but it’s been a positive two days overall. I’m looking forward to the break now. It’s been a long season, capped off by a race weekend and then three days of testing, so the down time will be good. It will give me time to relax, do something other than race bikes, so I can come back fresh for next season. I say that, but by January I’m usually itching to get back on the bike again and can’t wait for the season to start!” Mika Kallio #36: “The test day we had at Valencia was quite positive. As soon as we got back our preferred tyre we were immediately quicker and then we managed to make some set-up changes that saw me go more than a second faster than during the race weekend. It’s been interesting working with my new crew chief, Naoya Kaneko. He has a lot of experience and some good ideas and, already, we’ve found a good way of working together. Here at Albacete we started with the same settings on the bike, but this is a completely different kind of track with a lot of bumps everywhere, so first we had to adapt the bike to suit the track. Today was better, with good pace during the longer runs we did, but it was difficult to make that next step just for a few quicker laps. But, overall, the three days have been positive and I’m looking forward to improving things further when we come back to Spain to test next year.” Livio Loi #11: “From the first lap I felt really good on the Kalex-KTM bike, both in the dry yesterday and in the wet this morning. It’s very different from the bikes I’ve ridden previously, even the Honda Moto3 machine I raced in both the European and Spanish championships this year, so it took some getting used to. I’m happy enough with progress here at Albacete, as I managed to improve my time on every lap in both the wet and the dry. Now we head to Valencia for the final Spanish championship round. I always go full gas and it will be no different at Valencia, but now we have the Kalex-KTM I’m hoping we can run in the top five this weekend.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal “It’s been a long season, but Scott and Mika managed to complete a lot of work at Valencia and here at Albacete, despite the changeable weather conditions. With the bike we have a good direction for next season, which is always good to know going into the long winter break. Everyone in the team has worked hard this year, as always, so now we need to recharge the batteries ready for next season. Only Livio will have to wait a little longer, as he will race the final CEV round at Valencia this weekend, where we’re hoping to see him running top ten on the Kalex-KTM he tested here at Albacete.”