GRESINI RACING:

Fausto Gresini is pleased to announce that Marco Melandri will line up alongside  Marco Simoncelli in the San Carlo Honda Gresini Team for 2010.

It is a case of ‘Back to the Future’ for the 27-year-old from Ravenna, who returns to the Italian outfit after a spending year with Ducati in 2008 and the current season on board the Team Hayate Kawasaki.

Before that the team and rider enjoyed a three-year relationship, from 2005 to 2007, that saw Melandri take the runner-up spot in the championship, win five races and finish on the podium no fewer than 17 times. During that time Melandri upheld the winning spirit at Honda Gresini and always set his sights on top results even in difficult times.

The 250cc World Champion in 2002 burst onto the world scene in 1997 here in the Czech Republic, when he scored the first of his 22 career victories (7-125cc, 10-250cc, 5-MotoGP) and 62 podiums (17-125cc, 25-250cc, 20-MotoGP) so far.

Fausto Gresini –

“It gives us great pride and satisfaction to have Marco Melandri back with us. I have always had great belief in his potential and to get our sporting and technical project with him back on track following his experiences with other teams creates fresh and important motivation. Melandri is a huge part of the Honda Gresini story – we have had great results together that over time consolidated a relationship founded on mutual respect and friendship. Now I am confident we can recreate the past successes that gave us so much joy and excitement. With Simoncelli and Melandri together in the premier class and San Carlo as main sponsor we have a true Italian flavour to the team. Circumstances have conspired to allow us to create an “Azzurro Dream Team”, which provides us all with extra motivation. The choice we have made means that we will not be extending our relationship with Elias or De Angelis, but after a start to the season that certainly wasn’t easy, thanks to a lot effort from everybody involved we are starting to pick up some good results so I hope we can keep it up until the end of the season and help them find a good ride in MotoGP. I want to thank both of them and wish them a successful future.”