After the good performances in Friday practices and Saturday qualifying, Melandri was expecting a positive race day in Portimao. Unfortunately in race 1, the weather conditions and resulting wrong tyres choice did not allowed to Marco to achieve better than a fourth place after a very tight
race for the podium. Race 2 was even worse for Marco. During a very heavy rain storm, he was fighting for the victory when his race ended a few laps from the end after he was involved in the crash with his team mate, and had to say goodbye to his dreams of victory when it was so close.
Chaz Davies secured a very good third place in race two (crashed in race 1). Salom, 9th in race 1 was the winner in EVO category ahead of Barrier. In race 2 was Badovini, also 9th, to get the first position in EVO (result under omologation).
There was a very loud applause for Lorenzo Savadori winner of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup and he is now leading that Championship.
In the Championship Melandri is still fifth.
Next weekend the race will be in a Laguna Seca.
Marco Melandri, Nolan X-802R:
“It is really a shame. After almost making it onto the podium in Race 1 I had the right pace to redeem myself in Race 2. Unfortunately it went as badly as it could and I'm sorry about that because I could have had a really good comeback. It was definitely a lost opportunity, but it is also confirmation of the fact that my team and I are continuing to work together with our sights set on the highest prize. We'll have a chance to redeem ourselves in the coming rounds”.
Chaz Davies, X-lite X-802R:
“It really means a lot to get a podium in the wet, something I’ve not achieved before, not in Superbike nor Supersport, and for Davide to be there too is really an important result for Ducati today. Race 1 wasn’t easy, I didn’t feel that the bike was quite right. Things were beginning to improve though, and got interesting right when the incident with Leon took place. It was simply a racing incident, I was slightly wider than usual and he saw the gap and went for it… We’d planned to make changes for race 2 if it had been dry, but in the end those changes worked in the wet. It was going ok in the early stages, I struggled a little before starting to build my pace. After the Aprilias went down, I just put my head down and went after the podium. I really enjoyed the final lap, though I was truly on the limit - it also turned out to be the fastest lap of the race. We will definitely go to Laguna Seca in high spirits now.”.
