Marco Melandri's Portimao World Superbike weekend went from the sublime to the ridiculous after bagging victory in race one, his rear Pirelli fell to bits in the second outing and he struggling home in 12th place.

The former MotoGP star reckoned he couldn't find grip at the start of race one but it slowly came to him but then in race two, he got three useful laps out of the rear and then it began to induce serious chatter.

“To win in race one was not easy because at the beginning I was struggling a lot with the traction but after ten laps this improved and it was easier for me so I got closer to the front again," said Melandri

"When I was leading, it was very difficult, because it was very windy so it was hard to stay in front. When Tom passed me, he closed the line. Maybe he thought he was in front of me but he just pushed me out of the track.

"When I came back, I did not have any plan so I just pushed as much as I could. I tried to overtake Tom very quickly because Sylvain was very fast and tried to pull away. When I caught Guintoli I took the opportunity to pass him.

"In race two, I could certainly have been on the podium but instead the rear tyre began to vibrate from lap two onwards. From lap three I started losing grip and then the tyre deteriorated. As a consequence the whole bike started to vibrate and it was difficult to ride. I did the best I could do in that situation."