Marco Melandri looking for stable future

Marco Melandri is hoping he can impress in 2010 to secure a long-term future with the Gresini Honda squad.

The Italian has endured a torrid time in MotoGP recently having been released from a factory Ducati contract a year early at the end of 2008 after a dismal campaign alongside Aussie Casey Stoner.

And the former world 250GP champion suffered a nightmare start to 2009 when Kawasaki’s factory squad withdrew from MotoGP with immediate affect in early January because of the global economic crisis.

Melandri had only signed a two-year deal to ride for Kawasaki a few months earlier and his career was saved by a last minute rescue package that saw the Hayate team formed to run one factory ZX-RR machine.

Two top six finishes in the first three races were followed by a stunning second in the Le Mans wet to dry flag-to-flag race. But that was as good as it got though and for the rest of the season Melandri would have to be content with a best of seventh.

He agreed to join forces with Fausto Gresini again for 2010 and is hoping that the return will spark an upturn in fortunes.

All five of Melandri’s MotoGP victories have been while under Gresini’s wing, and in 2005 he finished second in the world championship.

Melandri told MCN: “I’m hoping for some stability because for the last three year’s I’ve changed team each time. And it has been not easy to start from zero and keep making a new relationship with a new team each time.

I would like to find some more stability and in Fausto I always had a good feeling and the team was very good with me. I needed to find a bike to be competitive and that was more of a priority than the money for me for next year after all that has happened. I hope I won’t be moving to another team soon.”