MELANDRI ESCAPES ANOTHER SCARE AT MISANO
Another heavy fall for Marco Melandri put a cloud over an
otherwise sunny second day of practice at Misano, with the
Italian coming off his Honda RC212V this morning. Melandri,
quickest in the wet yesterday, ran wide in turn ten and was
thrown over the handlebars when his rear wheel spun up on
the astroturf.
After being checked over in the Clinica Mobile, the Honda
Gresini man returned to the track for the final 30 minutes
of an extended two-hour session. After working well on the
set-up of his bike he was able to improve his race pace in
the afternoon but did not get the best out of a qualifying
tyre and will start tomorrow's race from the fourth row.
It was also a tough day for Toni Elias, who completed only
his fourth day back on the bike after his crash at Assen.
The frequent direction changes and hard acceleration of Misano
have put the Spaniard's physical condition to the test and
he will start from the fifth row tomorrow.
MARCO MELANDRI (12th, 1'35"236): "I'm
really pleased to have got back on track after such a heavy
crash this morning. It was my mistake - I ran wide onto the
rumble strip and then the artificial grass. The bike went
flying over the tyre wall but fortunatley I got away sliding
with a hard whack on the lower back and pelvis - not my neck.
The x-ray showed there were no breaks so I tried to get back
on track as soon as possible. My race pace isn't bad but I
couldn't find a good feeling with the quaifying tyre. Tomorrow
I will do my best but I know that it will be a demanding race."
TONI ELIAS (15th, 1'35"632): "My
physcial condition has improved compared to Brno but this
weekend I'm actually in more pain. I'm really struggling with
my leg because there are so many direction changes, a lot
of braking and you can never rest. Tomorrow in the race I'll
have to try and be economical with my strength. My objective
is to improve my result from Brno".
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