Melandri unfazed by lack of Sachsenring data

The tight corners and lack of long straights at the Sachsenring could play right into the hands of Marco Melandri, a rider at ease with the circuit and with a bike that trails the leading machines in terms of top speed. Speaking at Thursday’s kart race event, the Italian was confident of a good result in Germany.

“The bike has been very compettive over the past two months and I like the track,” he explained. “It will suit our bike as well, because of our performance on the short turns. I’m obviously expecting a good result.”

The Hayate Racing man has won twice at the track in the lower cylinder categories, and holds a best result of second in MotoGP competition. This will be one of his toughest races in Sachsenring, with a new bike and no testing information with which to set up the Kawasaki.

“This is one of the tracks at which we don’t have the data from 2008 to evaluate and use to our advantage, but I hope that this isn’t too much of a problem. The team have been working hard, and they are motivating me to have a good race.”

Melandri had problems at the last round at Laguna Seca, when a warmup crash affected the steering on his number one bike and left him frustrated in the race itself.