No looking back for Melandri at Assen

Article from http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-news/7225-no-looking-back-for-melandri-at-assen.html

Following his first WSBK win at Donington, Marco Melandri arrived at Assen hoping to be one of the protagonists and make up ground on leader Checa. Unfortunately the Italian could only come away with a fourth place in race 1, to add to his two crashes at vital moments of the weekend. The first was in Superpole 3, which led to him starting from the second row, and the second in race 2 as he was aiming for the podium.

Melandri is now 47 points off the top slot in the standings, but at least the team managed to make some improvements on the Yamaha YZF-R1 in view of the next round of the season at the team's home circuit of Monza.

"I got a bad start in race one and seemed to be losing feeling in the rear of the bike," said Melandri. "By the time I had regained feeling and a good race pace it was too late to push for the podium. In Race two the bike seemed to have a better set up and I managed to get a good start off the grid. I closed in on the leading pack but after the first ten laps I started losing grip in the rear tyre. I was keeping an eye on Rea and was planning to close in on him in the last laps but unfortunately without even realizing it, I lost the front and crashed out. I'm very disappointed with this and hope it doesn't happen again."