Melandri says Honda must improve

The Gresini rider passed Valentino Rossi for second in the early stages in Shanghai, but was unable to maintain his pace.

"I started well and the bike was good. I was aggressive and I was good in the twisty section," Melandri told Italia1 television.

"But then all the problems I had in every weekend came back: I started having more and more chatter, and in the quick curves I couldn't go fast anymore, the bike kept jumping up and down. It's the first time I've had this problem happening in such a big way.

"It's a shame, but we need to work anyway. Even without the chatter I wouldn't have caused problems to the top three.

"Even when I was quick there were some turns where I was pretty slow on the exit. We have a troubling power curve, I couldn't get on it as soon as the others."

After racing with Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa in Shanghai, Melandri believes the problems are not unique to the satellite Gresini squad.

"When Dani overtook me I noticed he was a bit quicker than me under acceleration, but he was struggling in turns too," said Melandri. "So we need to work: we've improved, but not quite enough."

He felt that Honda had been over-confident during the winter.

"When our bike was launched it sounded like it had already won a championship," Melandri said.

"Maybe we need to take a step back, stay calm, be humble and work. I'm sure they're working hard in Japan. We need a bit of time.

"It's not easy: perhaps everyone expected this bike to be better than the others, while in fact we're a bit behind."