Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) confessed quiet satisfaction after securing a fourth-place finish on the opening day in Thailand.  The Italian, double-winner at the opening event of the campaign in Australia, was relieved that the temperatures remained mild and his times tumbled in third practice. 

Melandri explained: “It feels great; better, because when it´s not as hot it feels more comfortable on the straight, so I hope it´s not going to be too hot tomorrow and Sunday.   On the bike I´m feeling OK; still I need to put together a few pieces of the puzzle but I'm quite confident ahead of the race.”

Although Melandri was unable to match the pace of the leading Kawasaki duo, he was pleased enough with a successful day, in which he finished embedded in a pack of ten riders at the top of the timesheets separated by just over half a second.  And since he finished just eleven hundredths clear of his teammate, he clearly extracted the maximum from his machinery.

"It was a good day. Luckily the weather was perfect today, so it was nice to ride here.  It was a bit difficult today because at the beginning the grip wasn´t so good, but in the end the track was getting better.   It was good fun, so we´ll see tomorrow.”