Marco Melandri

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Marco Melandri
File:2005 0512 Marco Melandri.jpg
Marco Melandri
Nationality Italy Italian
Born (1982-08-07) August 7, 1982 (age 42)
Ravenna, Italy
Website marcomelandri.co.uk
Motorcycle racing career statistics
MotoGP World Championship
Active years 2003–2010, 2015
Manufacturers Yamaha (2003–2004)
Honda (2005–2007, 2010)
Ducati (2008)
Kawasaki (2009)
Aprilia (2015)
Championships 0
2015 Championship position NC (0 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
139 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 2011–2014
Manufacturers BMW, Yamaha, Aprilia
Championships 0
2014 Championship position 4th (333 pts)
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
100 19 49 1 12 1415.5

Marco Melandri (born August 7, 1982) is an Italian motorcycle road racer. Melandri is also a former 250cc World Champion in 2002, which he followed up by finishing second overall in MotoGP in 2005. Melandri currently lives 2 miles away from the famous race track, Donington Park, Leicestershire, England.

Career

Early days

Melandri was born in Ravenna. 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 replacing the departing Max Biaggi. 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.

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.[1] 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[2] and Phillip Island, Australia.[3] 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 Mazda Raceway 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.

File:Marco Melandri 2009 Donington.JPG
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.[4] 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,[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] At Brno he battled Mika Kallio for sixth before a penultimate-lap collision between the two.[8]

For 2010, Melandri returned to Gresini Honda, with a factory-spec RC212V bike from the start.[9] Full factory support had sometimes been promised, but not provided, during his first Gresini spell.[10] The team made set-up errors in its initial testing.[11]

Superbike World Championship

Melandri moved to the Superbike World Championship from 2011 with the Yamaha World Superbike Team, replacing Cal Crutchlow, who moved to the Tech 3 team in MotoGP.[12]

On 2 October 2011, Melandri signed a contract to ride with the BMW World Superbike team for the 2012 season,[13] after Yamaha elected not to continue with a factory team after the 2011 season. Melandri achieved BMW's best result, at the time, in the Superbike World Championship, with a second place in the season-opening race at Phillip Island, having started 13th on the grid.[14] Mixed results followed at Imola, Assen and Monza, but Melandri achieved BMW's first Superbike World Championship victory at the European round at Donington Park,[15] leading home team-mate Leon Haslam in a 1–2 finish. Melandri and Haslam collided in the meeting's second race, denying a weekend sweep for BMW. From that point, Melandri won races at Miller Motorsports Park, Motorland Aragón and a double at Brno, to move within 21 points of the championship lead held by Max Biaggi.[16]

Return to MotoGP

In November 2014, it was announced that Melandri would return to Gresini, Aprilia's factory team for the 2015 season.[17] However, after failing to score a point in the first eight races of the season, Melandri left the team and was replaced by Michael Laverty.[18]

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 MS Aprilia Racing 16 9 12 2 4 298 1st 1
2003 MotoGP Yamaha YZR-M1 Fortuna Yamaha 13 0 0 0 0 45 15th 0
2004 MotoGP Yamaha YZR-M1 Fortuna Tech 3 15 0 2 0 0 75 12th 0
2005 MotoGP Honda RC211V Movistar Honda MotoGP 17 2 7 0 3 220 2nd 0
2006 MotoGP Honda RC211V Fortuna Honda Gresini 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 Marlboro 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
2015 MotoGP Aprilia RS-GP Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 8 0 0 0 0 0 NC 0
Total 215 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 Republic 1998 Italy 1998 Netherlands 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, 2015 2003 Japan 2004 Catalunya 2005 Turkey 139 5 20 0 3 1017 0
Total 1997–2010, 2015 215 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 125cc Honda MAL JPN SPA ITA AUT FRA NED IMO GER BRA GBR CZE
17		 CAT IND AUS NC 0
1998 125cc 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 125cc 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 250cc 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 250cc 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 250cc 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
WD		 RSA SPA
17		 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 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
2015 MotoGP Aprilia QAT
21		 AME
Ret		 ARG
20		 SPA
19		 FRA
18		 ITA
18		 CAT
Ret		 NED
19		 GER IND CZE GBR RSM ARA JPN AUS MAL VAL NC 0

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
2012 BMW S1000RR BMW Motorrad Motorsport 25 6 11 0 4 328.5 3rd
2013 BMW S1000RR BMW Motorrad Motorsport 26 3 12 0 2 359 4th
2014 Aprilia RSV4 Aprilia Racing Team 24 6 11 0 3 333 4th
Total 100 19 49 1 12 1415.5

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 14 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 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
2012 BMW AUS
2		 AUS
6		 ITA
6		 ITA
10		 NED
9		 NED
4		 ITA
C		 ITA
4		 EUR
1		 EUR
Ret		 USA
2		 USA
1		 SMR
Ret		 SMR
4		 SPA
2		 SPA
1		 CZE
1		 CZE
1		 GBR
7		 GBR
8		 RUS
2		 RUS
1		 GER
Ret		 GER
Ret		 POR
Ret		 POR
DNS		 FRA
2		 FRA
Ret		 3rd 328.5
2013 BMW AUS
Ret		 AUS
3		 SPA
3		 SPA
5		 NED
Ret		 NED
8		 ITA
1		 ITA
2		 GBR
2		 GBR
5		 POR
1		 POR
12		 ITA
4		 ITA
4		 RUS
1		 RUS
C		 GBR
9		 GBR
9		 GER
2		 GER
3		 TUR
2		 TUR
4		 USA
4		 USA
3		 FRA
5		 FRA
7		 SPA
2		 SPA
DNS		 4th 359
2014 Aprilia AUS
2		 AUS
8		 SPA
11		 SPA
3		 NED
6		 NED
6		 ITA
6		 ITA
11		 GBR
4		 GBR
17		 MAL
1		 MAL
1		 SMR
3		 SMR
3		 POR
4		 POR
Ret		 USA
1		 USA
Ret		 SPA
1		 SPA
1		 FRA
2		 FRA
1		 QAT
8		 QAT
4		 4th 333

References

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External links

Preceded by 250cc Motorcycle World Champion
2002		 Succeeded by
Manuel Poggiali
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