Marco Melandri heads into Saturday’s track action at Misano with renewed confidence, after several set-up changes resolved many of the issues that have plagued him in previous rounds.
The Ducati rider has been struggling with rear stability while shifting up through the gearbox, as well as with a lack of confidence under braking and difficulties in turning his Panigale mid-corner.
The former of those issues was mostly improved during the two-day test at Misano last month, but his woes into and through the turns continued.
Applying several changes Ducati ran out of time to try at the test, Melandri feels he is finally heading in the right direction with the bike.
“The team did a really great job after our last test here, analysing the data and coming up with a set-up that turned out to work quite well,” the Italian said.
“After two difficult rounds, it seems we finally managed to put some issues behind (us).
Melandri ended both of Friday’s sessions third fastest, posting a 1m35.151s which put the Italian just over two tenths down on the Kawasaki duo occupying the top two spots.
While highlighting the first sector as an area where more time can be found on Saturday, Melandri is fully focused on improving his race set-up and reckons he stands a good chance of a decent result, providing the team can get the most from the bike.
“Now we’ll try to make further improvements, particularly in the first sector of track.
“But I want to focus first and foremost on our race pace, because in these conditions consistency will be crucial.
“I believe that, if we manage to exploit our potential, we can ride a solid race from start to finish.”
Team-mate Chaz Davies endured a tougher Friday than anticipated after a positive test at the circuit, the Welshman struggling with front-end confidence.
Davies, third in the standings and 75 points adrift ahead of Saturday’s opening race, ended Friday’s running fourth on the combined times with a 1m35.250s.
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