Aprilia’s Marco Melandri has hailed the second World Superbike race as a ‘lost opportunity’ after he missed out on a possible win in the wet at Portimao this afternoon. The former MotoGP rider was involved in a crash with his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli and never recovered from the collision.
He was on course to make a move on the eventual race two winner, Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea – alongside Guintoli. Soon the Aprilia riders were closing in for the final attack. Unfortunately in turn five during the 13th lap, Guintoli braked on the inside of Melandri but slid, taking both rider’s down, and things couldn’t have gone much worse for the diminutive racer.
“It is really a shame. After almost making it onto the podium in race one I had the right pace to redeem myself in race two,” said Melandri.
“Unfortunately it went as badly as it could and I'm sorry about that because I could have had a really good comeback. It was definitely a lost opportunity.
“But it is also confirmation of the fact that my team and I are continuing to work together with our sights set on the highest prize. We'll have a chance to redeem ourselves in the coming rounds”.
