Melandri’s WorldSBK comeback ends in the gravel

Marco Melandri ended his first World Superbike race in two years in the gravel after crashing his Aruba.it Ducati at the Southern Loop whilst battling for the podium.

The Italian has had a strong comeback weekend so far, showing strong form throughout practice and backing that up with third on the grid in qualifying with a best lap of 1m29.734s.

Launching into the lead at the start of the season-opening race today, Melandri was able to run the same pace as the leaders and fought hard for the rostrum.

As the 22-lap encounter wore on, the Italian opted to preserve his Pirelli rubber and fell to fourth at just over half distance.

“Since the race was pretty slow-paced and crowded at the top, I wanted to take my time and save the tyres to try and pull away with (Jonathan) Rea and (Chaz) Davies towards the end,” explained Melandri.

With Kawasaki’s Rea and Tom Sykes, as well as team-mate Davies all bunched up at the head of the pack lap 15 saw Melandri begin to close them down. However, whilst trying to pass Yamaha’s Alex Lowes at the long left at Turn 2, the Ducati rider crashed out.

“I passed Lowes at Turn 1 and went a bit wide, but he changed direction earlier than usual at Turn 2, cutting in front of me. I lost the front for a moment and had to pick the bike up, going off track.”

Disappointed at his end result, Melandri admits that this can sometimes be expected in closely contested races, and knew his rustiness in such a situation would hinder him.

Nevertheless, the Italian was able to take away a lot of useful things from today’s race, and the pace he showed has him confident of another strong showing tomorrow despite starting from 10^th on the grid.

“I knew a group battle would be a weak spot for us, given my long absence from the races. Today, however,it was really busy out there and sometimes the races end like this,” he added.

“I’m disappointed but also confident and eager to bounce back, given our potential. I learned many things today and tomorrow it’ll be a different game, even though I’ll start from fourth row.”