Melandri encouraged by first practice

By Steven English

Friday, July 18th 2008, 20:19 GMT

Marco Melandri was delighted with his performance in the first practice session for the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca today.

The Ducati Marlboro rider's place at the team is under threat, but he set the fifth fastest time in the session and is confident after feeling good on the bike during the session.

"Finally, we've had a proper free practice, I'm pleased," he said. "At the beginning the circuit was tricky but that was probably because it was cool.

"I had a good feeling with the bike from the start, I was getting decent feedback and that's something I've been missing a lot this year. I was able to ride well and stay on the good line, and from then on we made constant progress, refining the base set-up we used at Sachsenring.

"Now we need to try to continue like this in the next session when the temperature will no doubt be higher, because I want a good race here."