Marco Melandri finished as runner-up in the 200𝐆5 MotoGP season to his fellow Italia𝓡n Rossi.

He moved to WorldSBK 🐟but briefly returned in 2015, the year dominated by the skirmish between Rossi and Ma🅺rquez which led to Jorge Lorenzo’s championship.

“The one 💎that impresse꧙d me as soon as I saw him was Marc Marquez, in 2015,” Melandri told . 

“I realised he had moved the limit. The way he rode, he us🤪ed his෴ body like I've never seen anyone do before.” 

Melandri continues♍ ❀naming the MotoGP riders who he rates as the best: “Surely Rossi is also on the podium, not so much for pure speed, but the way in which he always obtained the result, in any condition. 

“In🐼 the dry, in the wet, in the intermediate, he wa🌟s always among the best.” 

No surprises so far, you might think, but Mela🍒ndri’s third-favourite is not ꦅa name that you will have expected.

“A Japanese꧒ rider I met in 125cc, 💞Tomomi Manako,” he said.

“I remember it was the first year I was racing in the world championship, I was 15 years old; before that I watched him on TV, I obs𒁏erved him with admiration and I learned a lot from☂ him.”

Melandri, a 250cc champion, remembered Dani Pedrosa: “He was the cleanest rider on the track, but not because he was psychologically wea꧃k.

“However, he was so small that in hand-to-hand combat he alwa🐲ys got the worst of it. 

“Therefor꧅e, he had to try to♏ keep his distance from others as much as possible. 

“This led him to always be super clean.”

He recalls Marco🐟 Simoncelli, his teammate in 2010: “I was💛 like an older brother, since I was in my eighth year. 

“We had many te💦chnical meetings together, analysing the data, and even when he was serious he took life as a game.”

Melandri’s bꦇest MotoGP memory was at Mugello in 2005: “At the end of the straight in front of the home crowd I passed Rossi and Max Biaggi in on💜e go. 

“That o𒆙vertaking was almost worth a world championship!”

Today, a new 🎃era of riders is also🔴 led by an Italian.

Melandri predicts this season’s champion: “Pecco Bagnaia, bec﷽ause he is the m🍌ost complete rider. 

“He's the most ready, he's aware of his strength and 🍸his speed because he won last year and has the best bike, which he rides better than anyone else.”

But Melandri likens himself to Enea Bastianini: “Both for the riding position in the saddle, and for his aptitude for the race, more waiting in the first part and looking for a solution🦩 in the final part.”