After a strong Saturday in the Acerbis French Round, Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) left France feeling disappointed with his display on Sunday as the Italian took a top five finish after struggling with the feeling on the front of his bike.

With a top six finish in race one, Melandri was ready to hunt down the podium spots on Sunday from the front row of the grid. Making some changes to his Panigale R, he was able to battle in the podium pack in the opening half of the race, but was unable to match the pace of the top three as he struggled with the front end of his bike.

Disappointed with his race, Melandri explains: “I’m not happy as I was in a much better position starting from third on the grid. We tried to change the bike set up to improve the braking stability but we didn’t improve as much as we expected. I struggled to turn the bike and to change direction, it felt much heavier and after 10 laps the front tyre dropped down and the bike wasn’t turning anymore. I spent the race fighting with the bike, so we tried to make better, and we made it worse. It’s a bit sad as we were fighting for the podium.”

But looking ahead to the next round, the 36 year old looks forward to the new adventure: “I am excited to go to Argentina, it looks like it’s going to be a nice track. We have to see which kind of tyre Pirelli will bring, but it’ll be a nice experience.”

Take a look at Melandri’s weekend in France, or re-live the sensational action from Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, all on the WorldSBK VideoPass.