Marco Melandri (born August 7, 1982 in Ravenna, Italy) is a MotoGP road racer currently racing for the Hayate Racing 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. Since then, Scott Redding has become the youngest winner, having won the 2008 British motorcycle Grand Prix. 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-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 had with the Yamaha a worse Bike than Honda and Ducati, and struggled to succeed for the season. He finished the season in 5th position without collecting any wins and only two third Places.

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 USA's MotoGP round, Ducati announced that he will join its factory team alongside Casey Stoner for 2008 and 2009 [158376]. 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. Due to the poor running in the season, speculation persisted with Melandri tipped to move to Kawasaki after the summer break in 2008 to form a three bike team alongside John Hopkins and Anthony West, while his current seat was said to be taken over by Sete Gibernau for the second half of the 2008 season. However, on July 27th Ducati Marlboro team boss Livio Suppo confirmed that Marco Melandri would race at Brno, the first race after the 2008 summer break. On 19 August, however, Melandri confirmed he will be joining Kawasaki Racing Team for the 2009 MotoGP season to ride alongside his new teammate John Hopkins. He then ended the season in a lacklustre 17th position.

In 2009 Melandri achieved his first podium since 2007 with his 2nd place finish at the French motorcycle Grand Prix.

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 Playlife (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)
• 2008: 17th in MotoGP World Championship with Ducati Marlboro Team (Ducati)
• 2009: MotoGP World Championship with Hayate Racing Team (Kawasaki)

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

By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Team	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	Yamaha-YMR	13	0	0	0	0	154	5th	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	14	0	1	0	0	108	10th	0
Total				187	22	62	9	16	2102		1

• * Season in progress.

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-Present	2003 Japan	2004 Catalunya	2005 Turkey	111	5	20	0	3	1006	0
Total	1997-Present				187	22	62	9	16	2085	1

Races by year

() (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				-	-
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 Inj	JPN Inj	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 Inj	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 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	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

• * Season In Progress

References

External links

• marcomelandri.co.uk Official website