Marco Melandri

Marco Melandri
Marco Melandri
Nationality	Italian
Born	August 7, 1982 (1982-08-07) (age 29) Ravenna (Italy)
Current team	Yamaha World Superbike Team
Bike number	33
Website	marcomelandri.co.uk
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2003–2010 Manufacturers Yamaha (2003–2004) Honda (2005–2007, 2010) Ducati (2008) Kawasaki (2009) Championships 0 2010 Championship position 10th (103 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 131 5 20 0 3 1017 250cc World Championship Active years 2000–2002 Manufacturers Aprilia Championships 1 (2002) 2002 Championship position 1st (298 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 47 10 25 3 8 651 125cc World Championship Active years 1997–1999 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 1999 Championship position 2nd (226 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 29 7 17 6 5 428 Superbike World Championship Active years 2011 Manufacturers Yamaha Championships 0 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 2 0 1 0 0 27

Marco Melandri (born August 7, 1982 in Ravenna, Italy) is a motorcycle road racer currently racing for the Yamaha World Superbike Team. Melandri is also a former 250cc World Champion in 2002. Melandri currently lives 2 miles away from the famous race track, Donington Park, Leicestershire, England.

Career

Early days

He was introduced to racing by a former rider Loris Reggiani at the age of six. He came through the ranks from minibikes, motocross and then the Italian and European 125cc championship.

In 1997, Melandri won the Italian 125cc championship, also finishing 4th in European 125cc championship. In addition to his European success, he made his debut in 125cc world championship at Brno, Czech Republic as a wild card rider.

125cc (1998–1999)

After impressing in Italian and European championship in 1997, Melandri finally got his chance to compete in 1998 125cc world championship as a regular. He rode Honda 125cc bike under Benetton Honda Team. He went on to impress many as he earned his first podium in the fourth race of the season, where he finished second in his home Grand Prix at Mugello, Italy. His brilliant debut season continued when he won his first grand prix at Assen TT, Netherlands. He won this race at the age of 15 years and 324 days which made him the youngest ever Grand Prix winner, at the time. Overall, he won two Grand Prix in his debut season and therefore he finished the season at 3rd position in overall standings behind champion Kazuto Sakata and runner-up Tomomi Manako.

He remained on the same bike and team in 1999, where he bid to win the 125cc world championship. He went on to win 5 Grand Prix but failed to win the championship, finishing second behind Emilio Alzamora with just a single point difference. Failure in securing his first world championship did not stop his rise to 250cc world championship in 2000.

250cc (2000–2002)

Melandri was signed by Aprilia in 2000 to replace another Italian Valentino Rossi who left the team and 250cc class for 500cc class. He was highly expected to take over Rossi's shoes and to win the 250cc world championship. However, his debut season did not start as well as the expectation. He struggled to adapt to bigger bike and higher competition. He failed to win any Grand Prix in 2000, managing only 4 podiums, all came late in the season. Despite these problems, he still finishes the season at 5th position overall.

In 2001, his performances were improving. He managed to win his first 250cc Grand Prix at Sachsenring, Germany. However, it was his only win in 2001. Despite managing to appear on the podium on 9 occasions, he never really challenged for the championship. He finished the season in 3rd position behind champion Daijiro Kato and runner-up Tetsuya Harada.

2002 proved to be Melandri's chance to shine. With 2001 champion and runner-up, Kato and Harada moved to MotoGP class, he became the strongest contender for the championship. He dominated the season by collecting 9 wins and 3 additional podiums. After challenging for world championship for years, he finally won the 250cc world title. He became the youngest 250cc world champion at the age of 20 years and 74 days until Dani Pedrosa broke his record in 2004.

MotoGP (2003–2010)

After securing the 250cc world title in 2002, Melandri moved up to MotoGP class to spearhead Yamaha factory team alongside Carlos Checa in 2003. The Yamaha was less competitive than Honda and Ducati, and he struggled to succeed for the season. He finished the season in fifteenth position without collecting any wins and only two third places.

He joined Yamaha satellite team, Tech 3 in 2004 alongside Norick Abe. This season, he again struggled to get top results. Although he managed to collect two consecutive podiums, a series of crashes and retirements kept him out of the top 10 in overall standings. He finished the season in twelfth position.

Released from his Yamaha contract after the 2004 season, Melandri was the surprise choice of boss Fausto Gresini to join Sete Gibernau in the Movistar Honda team for the 2005 MotoGP campaign. Melandri was remarkably successful with Movistar Honda in 2005, with a consistent run of podium finishes early in the season, ultimately taking his first two wins in the final two races of 2005 to clinch second place in the championship. In doing so, he was the first Honda rider to win back-to-back races for nearly two years, winning the final two rounds of the MotoGP Championship at Istanbul, Turkey, and in Valencia. Although he never really challenged his best friend Valentino Rossi for the title, he finished the season strongly as runner-up, with a total of two wins and five other podiums.

Melandri rode for Gresini's Fortuna Honda team alongside Toni Elías in the 2006 season. With Rossi struggling to find consistency, he was a major challenger, along with Ducati's Loris Capirossi and Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa. He again won at Istanbul, despite starting from fourteenth on the grid. He managed further wins at Le Mans, France and Phillip Island, Australia. He finished the season in fourth position, just one point behind Capirossi.

In 2007, Melandri and Elias remained in the Honda Gresini team, now sponsored by Hannspree. Honda's 800cc machine was not competitive. Melandri finished on the podium at Laguna Seca and Le Mans – at this point he and works rider Dani Pedrosa were the only Honda riders with multiple podiums. He ultimately finished fifth overall, second only to Pedrosa among the Honda riders.

Melandri at the 2009 British Grand Prix.

Immediately after Melandri's 3rd place finish in the 2007 USA's MotoGP round, Ducati announced that he would join its factory team alongside Casey Stoner for 2008 and 2009. But 2008 proved disastrous, with a run of uncompetitive runs often leaving him behind the semi-works Alice Team bikes of Toni Elías and Sylvain Guintoli. At Assen he qualified last and ran there throughout. A rumoured mid-season move to Kawasaki did not occur, however Melandri announced that he would be joining Kawasaki Racing Team for the 2009 MotoGP season to ride alongside his new team-mate John Hopkins on 19 August.^[1] He then ended the season in a lacklustre 17th position.

Kawasaki pulled its factory involvement for 2009, leading to fears that Melandri would not have a ride,^[2] however a rescue package was agreed to allow Melandri to run the bike for a one-bike semi-works Hayate Racing team, despite his concerns over the bike's poor rear traction.^[3] In 2009 Melandri achieved his first podium since 2007 with his 2nd place finish at the wet French motorcycle Grand Prix. His only other top six finishes were in the first three races, as the team tailed off bike development and Melandri finished tenth overall.^[4] At Brno he battled Mika Kallio for sixth before a penultimate-lap collision between the two.^[5]

For 2010 Melandri returns to Gresini Honda, with a factory-spec RC212V bike from the start.^[6] Full factory support had sometimes been promised but not provided during his first Gresini spell.^[7] The team made set-up errors in its initial testing.^[8]

Superbike World Championship

Melandri moves into the Superbike World Championship from 2011 with the Yamaha World Superbike Team, replacing Cal Crutchlow, who moved to the Tech 3 team in MotoGP.^[9]

On 2 October 2011, Melandri signed a contract to ride with the BMW World Superbike team for the 2012 season,^[10] after Yamaha elected not to continue with a factory team after the 2011 season.

Car racing

In addition to his motorcycle racing career, Melandri has also competed in car racing. He raced in two rounds of the 2008-09 Speedcar Series season, scoring two points from the four races.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
1997	125cc	Honda RS125R		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC	0
1998	125cc	Honda RS125R		14	2	8	3	1	202	3rd	0
1999	125cc	Honda RS125R		14	5	9	3	4	226	2nd	0
2000	250cc	Aprilia RSV250		16	0	4	1	0	159	5th	0
2001	250cc	Aprilia RSV250		15	1	9	0	4	194	3rd	0
2002	250cc	Aprilia RSV250		16	9	12	2	4	298	1st	1
2003	MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	Yamaha-YMR	13	0	0	0	0	45	15th	0
2004	MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	Tech 3	15	0	2	0	0	75	12th	0
2005	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	Gresini Racing	17	2	7	0	3	220	2nd	0
2006	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	Gresini Racing	17	3	7	0	0	228	4th	0
2007	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	Gresini Racing	17	0	3	0	0	187	5th	0
2008	MotoGP	Ducati Desmosedici GP8	Ducati Corse	18	0	0	0	0	51	17th	0
2009	MotoGP	Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR	Hayate Racing Team	17	0	1	0	0	108	10th	0
2010	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	San Carlo Honda Gresini Team	17	0	0	0	0	103	10th	0
Total				207	22	62	9	16	2096		1

By class

Class	Seas	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	WCh
125cc	1997–1999	1997 Czech Rep.	1998 Italy	1998 Dutch	29	7	17	6	5	428	0
250cc	2000–2002	2000 South Africa	2000 Portugal	2001 Germany	47	10	25	3	8	651	1
MotoGP	2003–2010	2003 Japan	2004 Catalunya	2005 Turkey	131	5	20	0	3	1017	0
Total	1997–2010				207	22	62	9	16	2096	1

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
1997	125 cc	Honda	MAL	JPN	SPA	ITA	AUT	FRA	NED	IMO	GER	BRA	GBR	CZE 17	CAT	IND	AUS				NC	0
1998	125 cc	Honda	JPN 10	MAL Ret	SPA 10	ITA 2	FRA 2	MAD 2	NED 1	GBR 4	GER 13	CZE 1	IMO 2	CAT 8	AUS 3	ARG 2					3rd	202
1999	125 cc	Honda	MAL	JPN	SPA Ret	FRA 6	ITA 2	CAT 3	NED 8	GBR 5	GER 1	CZE 1	IMO 1	VAL Ret	AUS 1	RSA 3	BRA 2	ARG 1			2nd	226
2000	250 cc	Aprilia	RSA 13	MAL 5	JPN 5	SPA 6	FRA 4	ITA 4	CAT 6	NED Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	CZE 4	POR 3	VAL 3	BRA 3	PAC 3	AUS 5			5th	159
2001	250 cc	Aprilia	JPN 6	RSA 2	SPA 3	FRA 3	ITA 3	CAT Ret	NED 6	GBR 3	GER 1	CZE 2	POR 2	VAL Ret	PAC Ret	AUS	MAL 11	BRA 2			3rd	194
2002	250 cc	Aprilia	JPN Ret	RSA 1	SPA Ret	FRA 2	ITA 1	CAT 1	NED 1	GBR 1	GER 1	CZE 1	POR 2	BRA 4	PAC 2	MAL Ret	AUS 1	VAL 1			1st	298
2003	MotoGP	Yamaha	JPN Ret	RSA Ret	SPA Ret	FRA 15	ITA 11	CAT 13	NED Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	CZE 10	POR 7	BRA 11	PAC 5	MAL 11	AUS Ret	VAL Ret			15th	45
2004	MotoGP	Yamaha	RSA 11	SPA Ret	FRA 6	ITA 9	CAT 3	NED 3	BRA 13	GER Ret	GBR	CZE 9	POR Ret	JPN 5	QAT Ret	MAL Ret	AUS Ret	VAL Ret			12th	75
2005	MotoGP	Honda	SPA 3	POR 4	CHN 3	FRA 4	ITA 4	CAT 3	NED 2	USA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 7	CZE 6	JPN Ret	MAL 5	QAT 2	AUS 4	TUR 1	VAL 1		2nd	220
2006	MotoGP	Honda	SPA 5	QAT 7	TUR 1	CHN 7	FRA 1	ITA 6	CAT Ret	NED 7	GBR 3	GER 2	USA 3	CZE 5	MAL 9	AUS 1	JPN 3	POR 8	VAL 5		4th	228
2007	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 5	SPA 8	CHN 5	TUR 5	FRA 2	ITA 9	CAT 9	GBR 10	NED 10	GER 6	USA 3	CZE	RSM 4	POR 5	JPN 5	AUS 10	MAL 2	VAL 4	5th	187
2008	MotoGP	Ducati	QAT 11	SPA 12	POR 13	CHN 5	FRA 15	ITA Ret	CAT 11	GBR 16	NED 13	GER Ret	USA 16	CZE 7	SMR 9	IND 19	JPN 13	AUS 16	MAL 16	VAL 16	17th	51
2009	MotoGP	Kawasaki	QAT 14	JPN 6	SPA 5	FRA 2	ITA 11	CAT 14	NED 12	USA 10	GER 7	GBR 7	CZE Ret	IND Ret	SMR 8	POR 12	AUS 7	MAL 8	VAL 17		10th	108
2010	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 13	SPA 8	FRA 6	ITA 5	GBR Ret	NED DNS	CAT 9	GER 10	USA 8	CZE 8	IND Ret	SMR 10	ARA 9	JPN 11	MAL 9	AUS 9	POR 9	VAL 13	10th	103

Superbike World Championship

By season

Seas	Moto	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2011	Yamaha YZF-R1	Yamaha World Superbike Team	26	4	15	1	3	395	2nd
Total			26	4	15	1	3	395

• * Season in progress.

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Make	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		Pos	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2011	Yamaha	AUS 5	AUS 3	EUR 1	EUR 2	NED 4	NED Ret	ITA 4	ITA 2	USA 10	USA 6	SMR 3	SMR Ret	SPA 1	SPA 2	CZE 1	CZE 2	GBR 3	GBR 3	GER 2	GER 6	ITA 8	ITA 6	FRA 2	FRA 2	POR 6	POR 1	2nd	395

• * Season in progress.

References

1. ^ "Melandri claims Kawasaki move for 2009". motogp.com (Dorna Sports). 2008-08-19. http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2008/Melandri+confirms+Kawasaki+move+for+2009. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
2. ^ Henry, Alan (2009-01-06). "Melandri without a team as Kawasaki leave MotoGP". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jan/06/motogp-motorcycling. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
3. ^ Ryder, Joy (2009-03-11). "Marco Melandri On Hayate Kawasaki For 2009". Buzzin MotoGP (Buzzin' Fly Limited). http://www.buzzinmotogp.co.uk/marco-melandri-on-hayate-kawasaki-for-2009/405. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
4. ^ Birt, Matthew (2009-12-28). "Marco Melandri looking for stable future". Motorcycle News (Bauer Media Group). http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/MotoGP/2009/December/dec2809-Marco-Melandri-looking-for-stable-future/?&R=EPI-120981. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
5. ^ "Mika Kallio Taking out Marco Melandri". asphaltandrubber.com (Asphalt & Rubber). 2009-08-18. http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/racing/video-mika-kallio-marco-melandri-crash/. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
6. ^ Birt, Matthew (2010-02-11). "Marco Melandri happy with new Honda policy". Motorcycle News (Bauer Media Group). http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/MotoGP/2010/February/feb1110-melandri-happy-with-honda-policy/. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
7. ^ Jones, Scott (2009-07-04). "Marco Melandri Interview – "My Goal Is A Good Bike For 2010"". motomatters.com (MotoMatters). http://www.motomatters.com/interview/2009/07/04/marco_melandri_interview_my_goal_is_a_go.html. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
8. ^ "Melandri: I got it wrong on 2010 debut". crash.net (Crash Media Group). 2010-02-22. http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/157038/1/melandri_i_got_it_wrong_on_2010_debut.html. Retrieved 2010-02-22. 
9. ^ "Yamaha Sterilgarda confirms Marco Melandri for 2011". Superbike World Championship (Infront Motor Sports). 2010-09-05. http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-news/4273-yamaha-sterilgarda-confirms-marco-melandri-for-2011-.html. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
10. ^ "Melandri lines up alongside Haslam for BMW in 2012". Superbike World Championship (Infront Motor Sports). 2 October 2011. http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-news/9072-melandri-lines-up-alongside-haslam-for-bmw-in-2012.html. Retrieved 3 October 2011. 

External links

• marcomelandri.co.uk Official website

Preceded by Daijiro Kato

250cc Motorcycle World Champion 2002

Succeeded by Manuel Poggiali

Persondata
Name	Melandri, Marco
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1982-08-07
Place of birth	Ravenna (Italy)
Date of death
Place of death