Melandri upbeat after breakthrough

The Italian has struggled badly since joining the reigning champions from Gresini Honda for 2008, but in today's race he charged from 12th on the grid to take fifth place.

"I think it has been the best race of the season," Melandri said. "From now we can start to work and to build."

Team boss Livio Suppo said his faith in Melandri had been vindicated by the China result, and that there would be a lot more to come now he had adapted to the bike.

"We're delighted with Marco, who has made an incredible step forward," Suppo said. "I always said that we hadn't lost faith in him and I'm sure his season will start here."

Melandri felt he could have done even better had he not lost ground in the first lap dicing.

"I lost a little bit of time at the beginning - I had a very good start and passed many riders, but (Loris) Capirossi passed me back after the first corner, and I lost time and (James) Toseland also passed me," he said. "On the straight I passed Toseland under braking, and he took me wide, so Nicky (Hayden) passed me, and I had to start again."

Melandri said that while he was now much more comfortable with the Ducati, he still had some issues with the bike.

"The slow corners were very difficult for me, I had to go inside and then pick up the bike, otherwise the bike was moving a lot," he said. "On very low revs it was so difficult to open the throttle."