Malaysian GP - Drink causes Melandri problems
Eurosport - Sun, 21 Oct 21:19:00 2007
Marco Melandri overcame a bizarre drink-related problem to finish a brilliant second in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Gresini Honda rider's drinking straw, which allows him to take on fluids during the race, split, causing water to spray in his eyes and affect his vision.
The 25-year-old Italian attempted to rip the whole unit out, but only succeeded in detaching the other end of the tube from his back-mounted drinks bottle, leaving the part flapping around for the rest of the race.
"I was quite scared on the startline," he said. "I moved too much to take a drink and the tube had a problem.
"I managed to disconnect it, but lots of water had already come out, so it was not so comfortable."
Comfort is a relative term for Melandri, who finished third at Laguna Seca despite riding with a broken ankle.
The result matched Melandri's best result of the year, which came in the wet at Le Mans, and saw him beat Dani Pedrosa's Repsol machine in a straight fight, despite his bike having none of the updates of the Spaniard's.
"It's been a huge weekend for me," Melandri added. "This has always been my worst track, but this year it's been my best race on an 800 [cc machine].
"I tried very hard to catch [race winner] Casey [Stoner], and Dani. It worked with Dani but I made a few mistakes and could not catch him. It's very good to be second."
Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport
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Eurosport - Sun, 21 Oct 21:19:00 2007
Marco Melandri overcame a bizarre drink-related problem to finish a brilliant second in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Gresini Honda rider's drinking straw, which allows him to take on fluids during the race, split, causing water to spray in his eyes and affect his vision.
The 25-year-old Italian attempted to rip the whole unit out, but only succeeded in detaching the other end of the tube from his back-mounted drinks bottle, leaving the part flapping around for the rest of the race.
"I was quite scared on the startline," he said. "I moved too much to take a drink and the tube had a problem.
"I managed to disconnect it, but lots of water had already come out, so it was not so comfortable."
Comfort is a relative term for Melandri, who finished third at Laguna Seca despite riding with a broken ankle.
The result matched Melandri's best result of the year, which came in the wet at Le Mans, and saw him beat Dani Pedrosa's Repsol machine in a straight fight, despite his bike having none of the updates of the Spaniard's.
"It's been a huge weekend for me," Melandri added. "This has always been my worst track, but this year it's been my best race on an 800 [cc machine].
"I tried very hard to catch [race winner] Casey [Stoner], and Dani. It worked with Dani but I made a few mistakes and could not catch him. It's very good to be second."
Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport
link
