planetearth
There Can Be Only One
Number of posts : 3271
Registration date : 2007-02-03
 |  Subject: Melandri's top speed fears confirmed.  Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:30 am | |
| - Quote :
- Marco Melandri's pre-season fears about his Honda's comparative lack of top speed came to fruition in Saturday's season opening Qatar Grand Prix.
The Italian had qualified an unremarkable tenth, but had confidence in his race set-up and high hopes of springing a surprise in the grand prix - but was instead forced to push hard under braking to maintain position against faster bikes, eating his front Bridgestone in the process.
The Qatar weekend top speeds backed-up Melandri's claims; the Italian was just 17th fastest out of the 21 riders and some 16km/h slower than eventual race winner Casey Stoner (Ducati).
"I knew I had a good race pace and I was actually hopeful of a better result than this," said Marco, who peaked at fourth early in the race, then slipped back to sixth, before reaching the finish in fifth. "I got a good start and that allowed me to make up positions from the first lap. I tried to hang on to fourth place because I felt confident but we were losing time in the straight and I had to brake really late to make up time. That put a lot of stress on the front tyre and that forced me to slow down. In the second half of the race when the fuel load started to lighten the bike was more balanced and I was able to push again. The race was tough and the pace was really high. We still have a lot of work to do - the bike is new and we need to develop it."
Gresini Honda team-mate Toni Elias had been the shock of qualifying, putting his RC212V into fourth position - which he then held in the opening stages of the grand prix, before mistakes dropped him to an eventual 14th.
"I'm disappointed with this result because I was expecting something much better," sighed the Spaniard. "We worked well and I got a good start but lap after lap I started to suffer. We need more consistency and have to work hard to find a good setting over race distance."
Melandri and Elias will be among the riders testing at Qatar on Sunday. Crash.net | |
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