Yamaha WSBK team rider Marco Melandri holds on to second position in 2011 championship – WSBK news
Yamaha World Superbike Team rider Marco Melandri sustained his second position in the 2011 WSBK championship points table after the Imola round.
Although he experienced a tough race day at his home event in Imola, yet the absence of Max Biaggi benefited him.
Melandri said, “In race one I felt a strong vibrating sensation on the rear of the machine and was struggling with the engine brake so it was impossible to push any harder.”
The race day started in tough conditions for Marco Melandri. While starting from ninth position on the grid, he was stuck in the mid pack of the riders. The severe vibration on his rear end and low engine brakes held him off from pushing hard.
Melandri was not able to challenge the top squad where another unexpected competitor, Jonathan Rea was fighting with Carlos Checa. A bad race day still went unaffected on his championship position. While running along issues he managed to finish the race
one in eighth place.
The Italian rider was in better shape for the second race at Imola. During race two, he was able to ride high but a problem forced him to lose several places. Following the issue, he was racing out of top ten slots. However, he gradually made it back to
sixth place across the finish line.
Melandri added, “In the second race I was also finding it hard to brake on downhill slopes but as the race progressed and the tank got lighter, the bike was more manageable. I was hoping to fight for the podium but at that stage it was bit late so I had
to settle for sixth.”
Considering his season run, the Imola event was not a fruitful race day for Melandri. However, the sidelined veteran and his closest rival in championship Max Biaggi could not avail any points. Macro Melandri’s sixth place finish has halted Carlos Checa’s
2011 title claim by just three points.
If Melandri had made it to the podium it would have jeopardised Checa’s claim for the title, but now even only a 13th place finish for the Spaniard will be sufficient, making him the first Spanish WSBK champion.
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