Marco Melandri debuts on the Yamaha R1

Marco Melandri is now officially an ex-MotoGP rider and couldn’t get away fast enough from the paddock that left him, can we say bitter? The Italian is debuting at the Valencia race track (where his former team was yesterday with Simoncelli and Aoyama) testing the Yamaha YZF- R1 superbike for the first time in this one day test organized by the team.

Melandri has used Cal Crutchlow’s 2010 bike and the new 2011 updated version and has reported so far: “I immediately found a good feeling with the bike, which is very powerful but also easy to handle, it gives me the impression of being an easy bike to ‘interpret’, even though it’s still too early to give a definitive opinion.

I’m here just to get an early contact with it.
”Melandri has brought one of his long standing mechanic’s with him and met up with fomer Hayate manager Andrea Dosoli, who has been nominated as Yamaha’s new team manager, and will help #33 through the teething pains.

Melandri and Laverty will get further testing time at Phillip Island at the end of the month.