Even though the race at the historic Le Mans circuit was an unusual contest, with the riders having to change from wet tyres to slicks halfway through the race on a wet-drying track, albeit Marco Melandri fully deserved his second place finish in France.

Before the season began very few would have even bothered to entertain the thought let alone predict that four races into the MotoGP championship that Marco Melandri would have achieved three consecutive top ten finished, his first podium since the 2007 season and now fifth place in the championship standings with the newly formed Hayate Racing team.

Melandri onboard a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR which was updated over the winter, after Australian Anthony West and John Hopkins both struggled on the 2008 version, Marco  Melandri has stepped up results on the Ninja machine despite a barage of difficult circumstances that he had to face over the winter, as he sat dealing with his uncertainty about his MotoGP future.

After the race Marco Melandri said “It is awesome to be back on the podium. One month and a half ago, to imagine tasting the champagne again would have been so difficult, so it is one of the best feelings I have had in my life. I had a very difficult 2008 season and now I am working to get my speed back.”

Reviewing the French race at Le Mans he commented “It was tough because at the beginning my wet tyres were probably a bit too soft for the conditions that we had and every lap I wanted to change the bike, but it was still too early. When I changed the bike maybe I should have done it a lap later, so I just tried not to make any mistakes and just keep the pace. In the end I managed to have a really good race.”

As Melandri looks ahead to his home race next in Italy at Mugello he said “I know it will be tough at Mugello but I just want to enjoy today. I must say thanks to my team and to Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna CEO) who helped me to come back in after Kawasaki pulled out. It would be a dream to get a good result in Mugello, so I hope to get into the top ten there.”