Tuesday, August 19 2008 -- Ducati Corse will be without Marco Melandri in their 2009 season after the Italian decided to join Kawasaki at the end of the current campaign. Despite the eminent move, Melandri is totally focussed on this season's run.

From Honda Gresini, Melandri had moved to the Ducati factory team after a major surge in his form. But after coming to Ducati, Melandri has been a shadow of his former self and last month, it was decided that Ducati would not continue with Melandri in 2009. Melandri has, since, been in discussion with numerous other teams and it was finally Kawasaki who turned out to be the team of choice for this fantastic rider.

"I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008 and after that I am moving to another team. I will ride for Kawasaki next year so it's a big change for me."

"For the time being I want to think about this season but it will be a big challenge next year. I will keep working hard though and I am quite confident."

Melandri also elaborated on why Kawasaki had been the team of choice for next season. "John Hopkins is a very good rider and maybe he needs a stronger team-mate to be a little bit more motivated. Maybe I also need this kind of company to be motivated a little bit more because I really want to work closely together with a team-mate, so it will be a good experience anyway."

There were major rumours making the rounds on the track that Melandri may go back to his old team, Honda Gresini, to which Melandri replied, "Yes, it would have been a very nice option to go back to Fausto (Gresini). I had a very good time with him and he has always helped me a lot. Also this year we have been talking together, but for me, I have been looking at Kawasaki and they always seem very good. The engineers and the people give me a good feeling just to talk to them, so that is what I want to do."