Marco Melandri was delighted along with his performance at Le Mans on Sunday because he finished in sixth position, and also the improvement came following the Italian and his awesome San Carlo Honda Gresini team thought we would switch the suspension on his RC212V returning to Showa for that third round race.
The 27 year-old were being using Ohlins suspension on his bike previous to Le Mans, but decided to switch returning to Showa in an attempt to improve his feeling along at the circuit. The advance appeared to repay in the French track, and Melandri explained how he hopes to be able to locate a full solution with Ohlins for the remainder of the growing season.
“We were very open. We put in Showa but we were very clear and clean with Öhlins,” said Melandri. “We explained my problem and for me this year is the last chance, I cannot have many bad races if I want a ride next year so they understand.”
“Öhlins has been working really hard to try and help us fix my feeling problem, but for me it was not the same as when I was riding a Honda with Showa. So we talked and tried Showa to see if my feeling was a bit better. Something was a little better this weekend, but I’m sure Öhlins can help me work with them again. Now it’s very important to have this confirmed. We will have a big meeting this week and I hope to find a better solution for everyone.”
Assessing the race, Melandri discussed how he battled hard to maintain his sixth position. He said: “It was a good race for me. It was a very difficult qualifying but the team worked really hard in the morning and to find a better set-up for the race. I had a good start but I was not very aggressive at the beginning because I didn’t have a very good feeling on the rear tyre. After a few laps when the tyre was warm the feeling was better. The track was very difficult because it was very windy today, so I was pushing a lot to try and catch Nicky, but I made a few mistakes. Next time maybe I’ll do better at catching the guys in front of me but I’m happy, and I just want to thank the team because they have been supporting me a lot.”
Melandri now heads to his home race at Mugello, where he hopes to continue his progress on the satellite Honda.
“That track is one of the best in the world,” he stated. “The surface is very bumpy but I hope there is good weather like here and I hope to be able to have a good start again and be fighting a bit more for the podium. It’s going to be very difficult I know, but I want to do that.”
