Melandri happy after Jerez test
Added on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Melandri happy after Jerez test
Marco Melandri was in an upbeat mood following Sunday’s final day of testing in Jerez after smashing his best race time at the circuit from last year.
The Italian posed a time of 1:40.405 at Jerez which, whilst not towards the top of the time sheets, was almost 1.5 seconds faster that the best time that he managed to clock up with the factory Kawasaki in last season’s Spanish Grand Prix.
But the Italian, who was without a team until four weeks ago after Kawasaki withdrew from MotoGP earlier in the year, is well aware of the challenge that faces him in the coming season.
“It was a good test for me, after Qatar where we struggled a lot,” said the Italian rider. “We worked hard between then and now, and here we concentrated on improving the setup. We’re not far from the middle group, so it’s quite good.”
The former MotoGP World Championship runner-up was also one of a handful of riders who took advantage of adverse weather conditions on the final day, trying out the Ninja ZX-RR’s wet weather capabilities.
“I missed a lot of time this preseason and the bike is completely new, so it was important to ride in the wet here.”
