Marco better than ever

Marco Melandri claims he will go into the new MotoGP world championship campaign in better shape than at any other time in his career.

Despite some disappointing winter testing performances on the Bridgestone-shod Gresini Honda RC212V, the former world 250 champion is confident that he will go into the first 800cc world championship more competitive than previous campaigns.

Melandri, who won more races for Honda than any other rider last season, will get almost the same level of treatment as reigning world champion Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa in 2007.

He said: “I feel good but for sure now if we have to race tomorrow we couldn’t beat everybody. But it has been a long time since I had such a good feeling on the bike and now I’m enjoying riding and think if we can get the tyres right we can make a big step.