After making his debut on the 2009 Kawasaki ZX-RR at the Qatar night test, it has been confirmed that Marco Melandri has agree𓃲d to race for 'Hayate' during the 2009 MotoGP World Championship.

The Hayate Racing Team is a scaled down, unofficial version, of the former Kawa🔯saki Racing Team, which withdrew from MotoGP in🐷 January due to the global economic crisis.

Kawasaki had wanted a total withdraw, butꦐ has been 'persuaded' to back a privateer entry after consultations with Dorna. Kawasaki will supply the machinery and necessary technical support to Hayate, but no d𒀰evelopment is expected.

Melandri signed a multi-year contract to race for Kawasaki late last sea🐓son and, although subsequently named as the rider for the new Hayate project, claimed he was waiting to see how the latest ZX-RR performed at Qatar before making a final decision.

The Italian, looking to rebound from a disastrous season at Ducati, had been second fastest during a damp and dusty opening 🔴night at Losail, before slipping back to 14th on 🎶day two and 16th and last on day three.

Whilst Melandri was a worrying 3.207sec off former team-mate Casey Stoner, Melandri was within two seconds of third placed Valentino Rossi - a reasonable defici⛄t given the troubled background of the Hayate project - and only 0.065sec from Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland.

Signing a completely new contract, one that means he won't be tied down to Hayate for the two years he origina💙lly agreed with Kawasaki, Melandri revealed he wants to show the manufacturer that they have made a mi🍸stake in pulling out of MotoGP.

"The contract with Kawasaki has been cancelled. I had to make a big financial sacrifice, but the most importa𝔍nt thing that I wanted was to find trust," said the 2005 MotoGP World Championship runner-up.

"I have nothing to lose. One month ago I had one foot outside the ♚World Championship, and now I have a team that is working solely for me. My motivation is this, and to show Kawasaki that they made a mistake in choosing to pu✨ll out their factory support."

Whilst under no illusions, Melandri has come to the conclusi𒁃on that his goal of a competitive MotoGP seat in 2010 is best served by racing the Hayate rather than sitting on the sidelines.

"We weren't fast in Qatar; that's a fact. The bike did make a go🐷od impression on me though. I don't know how much it will be possible to improve it before the start of the season, but the team have assured me൲ that they will be making a big effort until the end of March.

"I've heard about not getting any factory support, but I believe in the work that has been done up to now. If the bike improves then I think that I can keep up. Obviously if I'm coming in las🐭t every Sunday then it will be hard to deal with, but I don't want to think so far into the future."

Kawasakඣi is the only MotoGP manufacturer not to win a race since the four- stroke era began in 2002 and took a best finish of fifth last season with John Hopkins and Anthony West.

Hav꧂ing missed February's Sepang test, Melandri will make his second Hayate appearance during the final pre-season MotoGP test, at Jerez, from March 28-29.