Marco Melandri admits he is ‘pretty disappointed’ that his impressive results this season have not led to further support from Kawasaki.
Melandri is riding for the newly named Hayate Racing Team, which is a rebranded single-rider version of the former Kawasaki Racing Team.
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Melandri is thus steering a brand new 2009 ZX-RR, with maintenance and running costs also covered by Kawasaki, but crucially - despite already matching Kawasaki’s best result of last season, fifth place, in only his third race on the bike last time out at Jerez - Melandri is not expecting any new parts.
The late Hayate deal meant the #33 could only attend two pre-season tests on the ‘09 bike, but he scored two points at the Qatar season opener, followed by sixth and fifth places at Motegi and Jerez.
“It’s a good time for me,” he smiled. “The last race at Jerez was wonderful. I didn’t expect to get a result as good as at Motegi, but I got a good start and the bike was working good. I’m pretty happy and just want to do my best every day.”
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“2008 was awful. Now I don’t have any big expectations because we didn’t even have to be here this year. The feeling with the bike is good, it’ll be tough to improve more but I feel confident in myself and the team. I just do 100 per cent every day.”
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