Marco Melandri

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Marco Melandri (born August 7, 1982, in Ravenna, Italy) is an Italian MotoGP road racer currently racing for Team Fortuna Honda. He won the 250cc world title in 2002, moving up to MotoGP with Yamaha 2003. Unforutnately he broke his leg in a heavy crash in this first race meeting, and struggled to succeed for the rest of the season. In 2004 he was on the Tech 3 Yamaha alongside Norick Abe, and again struggled to get top results.

He was a surprise choice by team boss Fausto Gresini to join Sete Gibernau in his team, but proved to be the revelation of the season, with a consistent run of podium finishes early in the season, ultimately taking his first two wins in the final two races of the season to clinch second place in the championship. He was the first Honda rider to win back-to-back races for nearly two years, winning round 16 of MotoGP championship at Istanbul Park with a time of 41:44.139.

Riding for the Fortuna Honda team alongside Toní Elías in 2006, he won round 3 of the 2006 championship at Istanbul with a time of 41:54.065 once again despite starting from a lowly 14th on the grid.

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