Melandri targetting podium challenge
Added on Friday, November 13th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Melandri targetting podium challenge
Marco Melandri has declared that he is looking for podiums after resigning with the Gresini Honda team for 2010.
Melandri, who has endured a torturous past 12 months after the withdrawal of Kawasaki, believes that riding with an established and competitive Honda team can help him back to a position that he feels reflects his talents and get him challenging for podiums next season.
The Italian was left without a team at Christmas after Kawasaki’ surprise decision to pull-out of MotoGP and it was only a last-minute agreement between Dorna and Kawasaki that kept the 27-year-old on the grid.
Racing with the hastily assembled Hayate team, Melandri managed to secure a second place finish despite having a skeleton staff behind him and minimal financial support in what was a relatively impressive year, and enough to catch the eye of Fausto Gresini who opted to bring back the rider that he let go in 2007.
And Melandri now feels that this is the ideal opportunity to kick-start his career after difficult years with Kawasaki and Ducati.
“At the start I though we had a problem with the setting but on reflection it was probably more to do with the fact we were on a used hard tyre,” said Melandri after the final day of testing in Valencia. “When we put a fresh one on the bike felt unbalanced but I still managed to improve my lap time.
“Anyway, I’m happy because we have been able to gather a lot of useful data that will help us in a variety of circumstances during the season ahead. It has been a good three days – not easy but we have worked well and now I just hope that the new bike works and adapts well to the new tyres because my objective is to be back challenging for the podium.”
