Melandri thrilled to recover to fourth

The Italian has endured a painful summer - injuring his ankle in a practice accident at Laguna Seca, sustaining a discal hernia in his neck at Brno, and then being thrown off his Gresini Honda at high speed when he crashed in yesterday morning's practice session.

But he was fit enough to resume the session and later qualify 12th. He then charged through the field to finish fourth in today's race.

"I couldn't have hoped for a better result considering my physical condition and starting position," said Melandri.

"This morning we made a few modifications during the warm-up that didn't have the effect we had hoped for so we changed a few more things and went out with an even more different setting in the race.

"With a good performance in the race I wanted have to apologise to the team for my mistake in practice on Friday that could have compromised our potential this weekend.

"The team gave me a bike that has worked well here and Bridgestone came up with the tyres. The whole package felt good and that allowed me to ride comfortably despite the physcial problems.

"Once I got past (Anthony) West, (Colin) Edwards and then (Loris) Capirossi, I ended up on my own for almost the entire race. Loris was close but I kept my focus for the whole race and then pushed again over the final few laps to make sure of fourth place."

Melandri's teammate Toni Elias had also been concerned about his fitness as the twisty Misano circuit took its toll on the leg he had broken at Assen two months ago.

He continued to struggle with the injury in the race, but still finished seventh.

"I'm satisfied with this result," said Elias.

"This morning in the warm-up we made a few improvements to the bike and that allowed me to take a step forward with my pace.

"I'm really tired now because the leg was so painful - especially in the second half of the race. From a physical point of view, Misano is very demanding but I stuck in the group and just tried to make up positions.

"Now I've got another two important weeks to rest before Estoril."