Melandri frustrated by throttle problems

The battle for seventh place in the 2009 MotoGP World Championship is a tight one, with just three points separating five riders from positions seven to eleven.

Leading that group is Marco Melandri, who rose from 15th on the grid at Sepang over the weekend to finish eighth. The result failed to please the Italian however, as problems with the throttle on his Kawasaki machine hampered further progress.

Melandri revealed it had been an issue before Sepang, and is one he is desperate to see corrected before the final race of the season at Valencia.

“I’m very, very angry about the race because I felt very confident from the beginning, and I was sure I could fight for a podium,” Melandri told motogp.com. “But we’ve had many problems with the throttle in the last three races, and today it was also very hard. I couldn’t open the throttle and the grip was sliding in my hands. Many times in the straight the throttle was coming back, so I couldn’t use the full power of my engine and at every corner it was so difficult to open the throttle.”

“We worked very hard all weekend and it was wasted in the race because of stupid things. I’m lucky we still have one race to go.”

Next up on the calendar is Valencia, where Melandri secured his second ever MotoGP win in 2005.

“I like the track, I won there in 2005 and I feel good for the race,” he said. “I hope the bike’s going to be working, especially the throttle! I’m looking forward for next year actually. If we’re good we can have a good race and finish top seven or eight. But the last few races have been very difficult so I have to see how the throttle is working for this race.”