Melandri OK but 'bike a mess'.

2005 MotoGP runner-up Marco Melandri, the fastest rider on day one at Sepang, was left just 11th on the day two lap times after suffering a mysterious high speed accident at the Malaysian circuit.

"Bad day for me," admitted Marco. "I had a big crash at the first fast right hand corner, I'm OK but the bike is a mess. I really don't know why the crash happened it was very strange because I was on the throttle when I went down. Checking the telemetry after the crash we got the bike back the data showed exactly the same settings as the previous laps had at that corner.

"Anyway, on the positive side when it was really hot today I felt the bike has improved from yesterday," he added. "I have to say we are not so far off where we need to be. Tomorrow we start a day of tyre testing. Michelin have several tyres they want us to test and it will be very important for us to understand how the bike behaves with the new tyres."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Fortuna Honda garage, new signing Toni Elias at last made clear progress with his RCV at Sepang, setting the eighth fastest time and lapping 0.82secs from the top.

"I'm satisfied with today's session and it was really a pity that at lunchtime started to rain and the afternoon session was completely spoiled," began Toni. "This morning we worked at the balance of the bike as I have some problem with weight distribution. We tested some different solutions and the feeling with the bike improved a lot. Then we started working with Michelin technicians, we started testing some tyres and the bike was working well.

"Thanks to the work done on the weight distribution and tyre testing I could improve my rhythm and I was quite satisfied. It was scheduled to test some new Michelin tyres in the afternoon but I couldn't because of the heavy rain. Tomorrow we will continue tyre testing, for me it's very important to work alongside the Michelin technicians, I'm confident that I can improve my pace," he concluded.