Marco Melandri

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Marco Melandri
Marco Melandri
Nationality	Italian
Date of birth	August 7, 1982 (1982-08-07) (age 25)
Place of birth	Ravenna, Italy
Website	marcomelandri.co.uk
MotoGP Record
Current team	Ducati Marlboro Team
Bike number	33
World Championships	250cc - 2002
Race starts	155
Race Wins	22
Podium finishes	61
Pole positions	9
Fastest laps	16
Championship Points	1834
2008 Championship position	13th (24 pts) - In Progress

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

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early days 1.2 125cc (1998-1999) 1.3 250cc (2000-2002) 1.4 MotoGP (2003-present) 1.5 Career summary 2 Career statistics 2.1 By season 2.2 By class 2.3 Races by year 3 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early days

Marco 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.

[edit] 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 makes him the youngest ever Grand Prix winner. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] MotoGP (2003-present)

After securing the 250cc world title in 2002, Melandri moved up to MotoGP class to spearhead Yamaha factory team alongside Carlos Checa in 2003. Unfortunately he broke his leg in a heavy crash in this first race meeting, and struggled to succeed for the rest of the season. He finished the season in 15th position without collecting any podiums.

He joined Yamaha satellite team, Tech 3 in 2004 alongside Carlos Checa again. This season, he again struggled to get top results. However, he managed to collect 2 consecutive podiums, but a series of crashes and retirements kept him out of top 10 in overall standings. He finished the season in 12th 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 round 16 of the MotoGP Championship at Istanbul, Turkey, as well as the 17th and final race at 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 2 wins and 5 additional 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 14th on the grid. He managed further wins at Le Mans, France and Phillip Island, Australia. He finished the season in 4th position, just 1 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. As of the race at Laguna Seca in which he finished third, Marco lies sixth overall, with an additional podium at Le Mans . After these 10 races, works rider Dani Pedrosa is the only Honda ahead of him in the standings - he and Pedrosa the only Honda riders with multiple podiums.

Immediately after Melandri's 3rd place finish in the 2007 US MotoGP round, Ducati announced that he will join its factory team alongside Casey Stoner for 2008 and 2009 [1].

[edit] Career summary

• 1996: 13th in 125cc Honda Trophy with Honda
• 1997: 1st in 125cc Italian Championship with Honda, 1st in 125cc Honda Trophy with Honda, 4th in European 125cc Championship with Honda
• 1998: 3rd in 125cc World Championship with Benetton Matteoni (Honda)
• 1999: 2nd in 125cc World Championship with Benetton Playlife (Honda)
• 2000: 5th in 250cc World Championship with Blu Aprilia Team (Aprilia)
• 2001: 3rd in 250cc World Championship with MS Aprilia Racing (Aprilia)
• 2002: 1st in 250cc World Championship with MS Aprilia Racing (Aprilia)
• 2003: 15th in MotoGP World Championship with Fortuna Yamaha Team (Yamaha)
• 2004: 12th in MotoGP World Championship with Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 (Yamaha)
• 2005: 2nd in MotoGP World Championship with MoviStar Honda MotoGP (Honda)
• 2006: 4th in MotoGP World Championship with Fortuna Honda (Honda)
• 2007: 5th in MotoGP World Championship with Honda Gresini (Honda)

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
1997	125cc	Honda RS125R	1	0	0	0	0	0	-	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	13	0	0	0	0	45	15th	0
2004	MotoGP	Yamaha YZR-M1	15	0	2	0	0	75	12th	0
2005	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	17	2	7	0	3	220	2nd	0
2006	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	17	3	7	0	0	228	4th	0
2007	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	17	0	3	0	0	187	5th	0
Total			155	22	61	9	16	1834		1

[edit] 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	2003-2007	2003 Japan	2004 Catalunya	2005 Turkey	79	5	19	0	3	755	0
Total	1997-2007				155	22	61	9	16	1834	1

[edit] Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Yr	Class	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Final Pos	Pts
1997	125 cc	Honda	MAL	JPN	SPA	ITA	AUT	FRA	NED	SMR	GER	BRA	GBR	CZE 17	CAT	IND	AUS				-	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	SMR 2	CAT 8	AUS 3	ARG 2					3rd	202
1999	125 cc	Honda	MAL Inj	JPN Inj	SPA Ret	FRA 6	ITA 2	CAT 3	NED 8	GBR 5	GER 1	CZE 1	SMR 1	VAL Ret	AUS 1	SAF 3	BRA 2	ARG 1			2nd	226
2000	250 cc	Aprilia	SAF 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	SAF 2	SPA 3	FRA 3	ITA 3	CAT Ret	NED 6	GBR 3	GER 1	CZE 2	POR 2	VAL Ret	PAC Ret	AUS Inj	MAL 11	BRA 2			3rd	194
2002	250 cc	Aprilia	JPN Ret	SAF 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 Inj	SAF Inj	SPA 17	FRA 15	ITA 11	CAT 13	NED Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	CZE 10	POR 7	BRA 11	PAC 5	MAL 9	AUS Ret	VAL Inj			15th	45
2004	MotoGP	Yamaha	SAF 11	SPA Ret	FRA 6	ITA 9	CAT 3	NED 3	BRA 13	GER Ret	GBR Inj	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 Inj	SMR 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 -	GBR -	NED -	GER -	USA -	CZE -	SMR -	IND -	JPN -	AUS -	MAL -	VAL -	-	-

[edit] External links

• marcomelandri.co.uk Official website

Preceded by Daijiro Kato

250cc Motorcycle World Champion 2002

Succeeded by Manuel Poggiali

v • d • e Teams and Riders competing in the 2008 MotoGP World Championship Ducati Marlboro Repsol Honda Rizla Suzuki Fiat Yamaha Honda Gresini Alice Team Kawasaki Racing Yamaha Tech 3 Honda LCR JiR Team Scot 1 Stoner 33 Melandri 2 Pedrosa 69 Hayden 7 Vermeulen 65 Capirossi 46 Rossi 48 Lorenzo 15 de Angelis 56 Nakano 24 Elías 50 Guintoli 13 West 21 Hopkins 5 Edwards 52 Toseland 14 de Puniet   4 Dovizioso

v • d • e Ducati Marlboro Casey Stoner (1) | Marco Melandri (33) Grand Prix motorcycle : Ducati Desmosedici GP8

v • d • e 250 cc Motorcycle World Champions     1949 - B. Ruffo 1950 - D. Ambrosini 1951 - B. Ruffo 1952 - E. Lorenzetti 1953 - W. Haas 1954 - W. Haas 1955 - H. Müller 1956 - C. Ubbiali 1957 - C. Sandford 1958 - T. Provini 1959 - C. Ubbiali 1960 - C. Ubbiali 1961 - M. Hailwood 1962 - J. Redman 1963 - J. Redman 1964 - P. Read 1965 - P. Read 1966 - M. Hailwood 1967 - M. Hailwood 1968 - P. Read 1969 - K. Carruthers 1970 - R. Gould 1971 - P. Read 1972 - J. Saarinen 1973 - D. Braun 1974 - W. Villa 1975 - W. Villa 1976 - W. Villa 1977 - M. Lega 1978 - K. Ballington 1979 - K. Ballington 1980 - A. Mang 1981 - A. Mang 1982 - J. Tournadre 1983 - C. Lavado 1984 - C. Sarron 1985 - F. Spencer 1986 - C. Lavado 1987 - A. Mang 1988 - S. Pons 1989 - S. Pons 1990 - J. Kocinski 1991 - L. Cadalora 1992 - L. Cadalora 1993 - T. Harada 1994 - M. Biaggi 1995 - M. Biaggi 1996 - M. Biaggi 1997 - M. Biaggi 1998 - L. Capirossi 1999 - V. Rossi 2000 - O. Jacque 2001 - D. Kato 2002 - M. Melandri 2003 - M. Poggiali 2004 - D. Pedrosa 2005 - D. Pedrosa 2006 - J. Lorenzo 2007 - J. Lorenzo