Ever since Saturday’s Superpole face-off with Max Biaggi, his first WSBK race win and two podiums, Marco Melandri has become the rider of the moment, and a very talkative one at that.
The Italian has always had a certain proclivity at criticizing his fellow riders, certain outbursts like the one he had at the Misano GP Week Dedikato event against Valentino Rossi, but especially against Loris Capirossi were quite emblematic, but Melandri is on the roll again after winning his first race since 2006 (he won 3 that year) is enjoying his newfound moment of fame and letting loose with the barbs.
He has no longer has any inkling of a relationship with Rossi, even if they’ve known each other since they raced minibikes together when they were just little kids, and Rossi’s recent comments on Superbikes being a B class championship has somewhat irritated the Superbike newbie, “I sometimes criticized Superbikes when I was on the other side (in MotoGP) but it was only envy.
If it doesn’t interest him, he shouldn’t talk about it.
He’s only saying this stuff because our success bothers him” said Melandri speaking to the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Now that’s he’s had his taste of Superbikes, the Yamaha rider seems to have regretted not leaving MotoGP much sooner, “When you don’t have the right bike and team it’s easy to lose the desire to race.
I got paid, I did the thing I love the most, but I’d get back home really pissed off.
It didn’t make sense, I was losing respect for myself, instead here I found it again.
“And last but not least, a pot shot a Ducati who sent him to a psychologist in 2008 after not being able to find his way around the GP8.
“Ducati is now understanding that maybe I wasn’t stupid after all.
Maybe they’ll win again, but that’s a subject that I don’t really care about.
”