Aruba Ducati Marco Melandri will use this weekend’s Assen WorldSBK as a benchmark to assess how close upgrades to the Panigale have brougt him to the rear wheel of championship leader Jonathan Rea.

The Italian is now fully recovered from the crash which cut short his post-race test at Aragon and he will be able to evaluate further the additions already tried by team-mate Chaz Davies.

“Assen is a track that I really enjoy riding at, even if it was more fascinating in its old layout, but for different reasons I never managed to win there in WorldSBK. It will be an important benchmark for us, because it’s a completely different circuit compared with the ones we raced at so far, with a short straight and many fast corners,” said Melandri.

“Our hope is to confirm the steps forward made with the latest upgrades we tested post-race at Aragon. Physically I’m OK, thankfully it took only a week to recover from the crash during the tests, and I was able to train properly. The forecast says it’s going to be cold, so let’s hope for dry conditions because it’s always tricky to ride with low temperatures in the wet.”