Melandri: Magny-Cours win was fair compensation

marcomelandri

The Italian won the second of two races at the penultimate round of the 2014 World Superbike season after seemingly defying team orders to not allow team-mate and title contender Sylvain Guintoli to pass through.

Melandri had followed the request of the team in the first race, letting Guintoli pass him with five laps remaining after a sad face appeared on his pit board.

The graphic appeared again in the second race, but this time Melandri defied the order to take the chequered flag for himself and the maximum 25 points on offer.

Guintoli now faces a 12-point deficit to championship leader Tom Sykes ahead of the final round in Doha next month, but Melandi feels he was deserving of the victory.

"The win in race two is fair compensation for my efforts and those of the team, and on top of that it put me in third place in the standings," Melandri commented. 

"We did a great job. The bike was fantastic. Sylvain was very fast and in the first laps it was difficult to overtake, but we created a good gap in front of our rivals. 

"I have demonstrated a good pace from the halfway point of the season, so now we'll see how things go in Qatar." 

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