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30-618: It was developed as a direct result of major changes to the regulations for the World Championship motorcycle road racing 500 cc (30.5 cu in) class for the 2002 season. The name of the class was modified to MotoGP , and while two-stroke engines remained limited to 500 cc (30.5 cu in) and four cylinders , four-stroke engines were now allowed to be as large as 990 cc (60 cu in) and from three to six cylinders – which led many teams to switch to four-stroke designs. The model name designates

60-480: A 2006 bike with a special chassis for Pedrosa, and a 2006 bike to be ridden by Melandri, Elías, Stoner, and Tamada; Melandri and Stoner eventually got the special Pedrosa chassis. Hayden's RC211V was modified to put the crankshaft higher, the clutch and gearbox lower, and to lengthen the swing arm; the goal was to centralize mass and improve stability. After the Jerez round, Hayden was the fastest Honda rider in testing. At

90-503: A double at Brno , to move within 21 points of the championship lead held by Max Biaggi . On 16 July 2020, it was announced that Melandri would replace Leon Camier at the Barni Ducati Racing Team for the remainder of the season 2020. Camier was not recovered from a shoulder injury during winter testing at Motorland Aragon after fracturing his shoulder and wrist. In September 2020, another retirement announcement

120-1582: A good launch at the start but also work well throughout the race. Hayden eventually won the rider championship and Honda reclaimed the constructors' championship. The RC211V was retired when rules dictated a switch to 800 cc (49 cu in) capacity; Honda's bike for 2007 was the RC212V . In five seasons of MotoGP racing the Honda RC211V won 48 races out of 82 (58.5%) contested. It also won three-rider world championships (Rossi 2002, 2003 and Hayden 2006) and four constructor titles (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006). Specifications as per manufacturer: Title won Rider: ( Valentino Rossi 2002 , 2003 ) ( Nicky Hayden 2006 ) Constructors: ( 2002 , 2003 2006 ) Race Won: 48 2002: Rossi 11, Barros 2, Ukawa 1 (14 in total) 2003: Rossi 9, Gibernau 4, Biaggi 2 (15 in total) 2004: Gibernau 4, Tamada 2, Biaggi 1 (7 in total) 2005: Melandri 2, Hayden 1, Barros 1 (4 in total) 2006: Melandri 3, Pedrosa 2, Hayden 2, Elias 1 (8 in total) Poles: 46 2002: Rossi 7, Barros 1, Kato 1 (9 in total) 2003: Rossi 9, Biaggi 3, Sete Gibernau 1 (13 in total) 2004: Gibernau 5, Tamada 2, Biaggi 1 (8 in total) 2005: Gibernau 5, Hayden 4, Barros 1 (10 in total) 2006: Pedrosa 4, Hayden 1, Stoner 1 (6 in total) ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) (the teams are bold indicate factory teams;

150-536: A race. Among other changes in 2003, power was increased from about 200 to 240 bhp. Traction control was also added. For 2004, a new, inverted rear suspension link was added, and a new exhaust was introduced at the Sachsenring round. The RC211V riders were unable to keep Rossi (now on a Yamaha YZR-M1 ) from winning his fourth premier-class championship, and no clear candidate appeared to take over Rossi's role of lead development rider for Honda. 2005 would be

180-434: A regular. He rode Honda 125cc bike under Benetton Honda Team. He went on to impress many as he earned his first podium in the fourth race of the season, where he finished second in his home Grand Prix at Mugello , Italy . His brilliant debut season continued when he won his first grand prix at Assen TT , Netherlands . He won this race at the age of 15 years and 324 days which made him the youngest ever Grand Prix winner, at

210-557: A second place in the season-opening race at Phillip Island , having started 13th on the grid. Mixed results followed at Imola , Assen and Monza , but Melandri achieved BMW's first Superbike World Championship victory at the European round at Donington Park , leading home teammate Leon Haslam in a 1–2 finish. Melandri and Haslam collided in the meeting's second race, denying a weekend sweep for BMW. From that point, Melandri won races at Miller Motorsports Park , Motorland Aragón and

240-423: A single point difference. Failure in securing his first world championship did not stop his rise to 250cc world championship in 2000. Melandri was signed by Aprilia in 2000 to replace another Italian Valentino Rossi who left the team and 250cc class for 500cc class . He was highly expected to take over Rossi's shoes and to win the 250cc world championship . However, his debut season did not start as well as

270-454: Is an Italian retired motorcycle road racer who is a five-time premier class race winner. He is the 2002 250 cc World Champion and runner-up in 125 cc, MotoGP and Superbike World Championship . He competed in the MotoGP class from 2003 to 2010 and then a brief return with Aprilia in 2015. Melandri's best years in MotoGP came in 2005 and 2006 with these two seasons being

300-457: The 2006 season . With Rossi struggling to find consistency, he was a major challenger, along with Ducati 's Loris Capirossi and Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa . He again won at Istanbul, despite starting from fourteenth on the grid. He managed further wins at Le Mans , France and Phillip Island , Australia . He finished the season in fourth position, just one point behind Capirossi. In 2007, Melandri and Elias remained in

330-509: The 2009 MotoGP season to ride alongside his new teammate John Hopkins on 19 August. He then ended the season in a lacklustre 17th position. Kawasaki pulled its factory involvement for 2009, leading to fears that Melandri would not have a ride, however a rescue package was agreed to allow Melandri to run the bike for a one-bike semi-works Hayate Racing team, despite his concerns over the bike's poor rear traction. In 2009 Melandri achieved his first podium since 2007 with his 2nd-place finish at

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360-504: The 250cc world title . He became the youngest 250cc world champion at the age of 20 years and 74 days until Dani Pedrosa broke his record in 2004. After securing the 250cc world title in 2002, Melandri moved up to MotoGP class to spearhead Yamaha factory team alongside Carlos Checa in 2003 replacing the departing Max Biaggi . The Yamaha was less competitive than Honda and Ducati, and although Melandri at times showed good speed, he struggled to turn this into good results. He finished

390-535: The Honda Gresini team, now sponsored by Hannspree . Honda 's 800cc machine was not competitive. Melandri finished on the podium at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Le Mans  – at this point he and works rider Dani Pedrosa were the only Honda riders with multiple podiums. He ultimately finished fifth overall, second only to Pedrosa among the Honda riders. Immediately after Melandri's 3rd-place finish in

420-803: The Superbike World Championship from 2011 with the Yamaha World Superbike Team, replacing Cal Crutchlow , who moved to the Tech3 team in MotoGP. On 2 October 2011, Melandri signed a contract to ride with the BMW World Superbike team for the 2012 season, after Yamaha elected not to continue with a factory team after the 2011 season. Melandri achieved BMW's best result, at the time, in the Superbike World Championship, with

450-483: The Superbike World Championship in 2011, earning 22 wins in his first six seasons finishing among the top five every time. Melandri retired from racing after the 2019 Superbike World Championship . After a brief return to Superbike in 2020 and racing in four rounds Melandri retired again. Melandri was born in Ravenna . He was introduced to racing by a former rider Loris Reggiani at the age of six. He came through

480-529: The 2007 USA's MotoGP round, Ducati announced that he would join its factory team alongside Casey Stoner for 2008 and 2009. But 2008 proved disastrous, with a run of uncompetitive runs often leaving him behind the semi-works Alice Team bikes of Toni Elías and Sylvain Guintoli . At Assen he qualified last and ran there throughout. A rumoured mid-season move to Kawasaki did not occur, however Melandri announced that he would be joining Kawasaki Racing Team for

510-534: The British GP, HRC gave Hayden a new chassis, but Hayden complained that he didn't have enough time to test it. Hayden had started the year with the same clutch as Pedrosa, but four rounds later it was shelved in favor of a clutch Hayden had used in previous years; at the Brno round, he had a problem with the clutch that contributed to a 9th-place finish. Honda and Hayden had difficulty finding a clutch that would allow

540-583: The championship. In doing so, he was the first Honda rider to win back-to-back races for nearly two years, winning the final two rounds of the MotoGP Championship at Istanbul and in Valencia . Although he never really challenged his best friend Valentino Rossi for the title, he finished the season strongly as runner-up, with a total of two wins and five other podiums. Melandri rode for Gresini's Fortuna Honda team alongside Toni Elías in

570-436: The expectation. He struggled to adapt to bigger bike and higher competition. He failed to win any Grand Prix in 2000, managing only 4 podiums, all came late in the season. Despite these problems, he still finishes the season at 5th position overall. In 2001, his performances were improving. He managed to win his first 250cc Grand Prix at Sachsenring , Germany . However, it was his only win in 2001. Despite managing to appear on

600-475: The first time in four years Honda lost the constructors' championship in the premier class. The RC211V chassis underwent frequent revision and rewelding, with reversions to the 2003 design. After the race at Brno, Honda tested a new bike which both Hayden and Biaggi said was an improvement, and was thereafter known as the "Brno bike". In 2006, the RC211V came in three flavors: the "Brno bike" to be ridden by Hayden,

630-440: The following: The RC211V was replaced in 2007 by the RC212V . In 2002, the debut year of the RC211V, Honda and Valentino Rossi dominated by winning the constructors' championship by more than 100 points over their nearest rival. The bike underwent small modifications over the season, but it did not as yet have traction control so much as a handlebar-mounted power management system with three settings for different needs during

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660-579: The only seasons he won races in MotoGP, the same as title rival Nicky Hayden . Melandri finished runner-up in 2005 to Valentino Rossi with two wins. The 2006 season is regarded as his best ever as he won three races and finished 24 points behind eventual champion Nicky Hayden. In both these seasons he won more races than title rival Hayden, finishing ahead of Hayden in 2005 and just behind him in 2006. Melandri has 22 race wins in Grand Prix motorcycle racing including five in MotoGP. Melandri switched to

690-492: The podium on 9 occasions, he never really challenged for the championship. He finished the season in 3rd position behind champion Daijiro Kato and runner-up Tetsuya Harada . 2002 proved to be Melandri's chance to shine. With 2001 champion and runner-up, Kato and Harada moved to MotoGP class, he became the strongest contender for the championship. He dominated the season by collecting 9 wins and 3 additional podiums. After challenging for world championship for years, he finally won

720-532: The ranks from minibikes, motocross and then the Italian and European 125cc championship. In 1997, Melandri won the Italian 125cc championship, also finishing 4th in European 125cc championship. In addition to his European success, he made his debut in 125cc world championship at Brno , Czech Republic as a wild card rider. After impressing in Italian and European championship in 1997, Melandri finally got his chance to compete in 1998 125cc world championship as

750-579: The riders are bold indicate the rider rode a factory bikes in the satellite teams) 2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 564813434 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:45:25 GMT Marco Melandri Marco Melandri (born 7 August 1982)

780-412: The season in fifteenth position without collecting any wins or podiums. He joined Yamaha's satellite team, Tech3 in 2004 alongside Norick Abe in order to make way for the incoming Valentino Rossi . This season, he again struggled to get top results. Although he managed to collect two consecutive podiums, a series of crashes and retirements kept him out of the top 10 in overall standings. He finished

810-569: The season in twelfth position. Released from his Yamaha contract after the 2004 season, Melandri was the surprise choice of boss Fausto Gresini to join Sete Gibernau in the Movistar Honda team for the 2005 MotoGP campaign. Melandri was successful with Movistar Honda in 2005, with a consistent run of podium finishes early in the season, ultimately taking his first two wins in the final two races of 2005 to clinch second place in

840-417: The time. Overall, he won two Grand Prix in his debut season and therefore he finished the season at 3rd position in overall standings behind champion Kazuto Sakata and runner-up Tomomi Manako . He remained on the same bike and team in 1999, where he bid to win the 125cc world championship . He went on to win 5 Grand Prix but failed to win the championship, finishing second behind Emilio Alzamora with just

870-547: The wet French motorcycle Grand Prix . His only other top six finishes were in the first three races, as the team tailed off bike development and Melandri finished tenth overall. At Brno he battled Mika Kallio for sixth before a penultimate-lap collision between the two. For 2010, Melandri returned to Gresini Honda, with a factory-spec RC212V bike from the start. Full factory support had sometimes been promised, but not provided, during his first Gresini spell. The team made set-up errors in its initial testing. Melandri moved to

900-463: Was made midway through the season, due to Melandri's disappointing results and the hope of the Barni team finding better WSBK success with their younger rider Samuele Cavalieri, promoted from their entry in the Italian national CIV Superstock race class. In November 2014, it was announced that Melandri would return to Gresini, Aprilia 's factory team for the 2015 season. However, after failing to score

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