Editor

A wide gap of 74 points separates Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) from long-time series leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) in the overall fight for the championship with three rounds to go. On the evidence of testing at Misano last week, however, Melandri is more than capable of taking the fight to his Spanish rival when action resumes at Imola this week.
"We've just completed two very positive days testing," said Melandri. "I had a particularly tough race weekend here in June so we tried various new settings over the last two days and found positive results all around. We made progress with the engine brake which I had been struggling with during the season and hopefully we made a step in the right direction which will help in the remaining three races also."


Like most of his peer group, Melandri tried the latest generation of Pirelli tyres at the Misano tests. "We spent a significant part of yesterday working with Pirelli mainly on new compound solutions for the 2012 season. Overall, it went really well. We worked very hard but made improvements and were fast and consistent throughout the two days."



Source: World Superbike

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