Ducati’s Marco Melandri has told several European news agencies, including the official MotoGP web site, that he has come to terms with Kawasaki to ride as a teammate to John Hopkins next year. Melandri has had a miserable year at Ducati, and ultimately negotiated a release from his two-year contract there. Speaking to MotoGP.com, Melandri stated “Hopkins is a very good rider and maybe he needs a stronger team-mate to be a little bit more motivated. Maybe I also need this kind of company to be motivated a little bit more because I really want to work closely together with a team-mate, so it will be a good experience anyway.”
Melandri will finish out the year with Ducati with the hope of continuing improvement in his results. He placed an encouraging seventh at Brno last weekend.
