FROM THE SADDLE WITH MARCO MELANDRI A lap of the Istanbul Park on Marco’s Honda Istanbul is a special circuit and it is easy to understand why. Last year I had an extraordinary weekend here. I was strong in practice and the race was unforgettable, leading all the way to my first MotoGP win. It was an unforgettable emotion. Perhaps that is the reason or perhaps it is because of the characteristics of the track but I like Istanbul Park a lot. It is a complete and technical circuit with a lot of changes in direction and pace. There are slow corners in first or second gear, as well as some fast ones in fourth or fifth. Despite the short straight it is a fun track and it allows you to get the full potential out of a MotoGP bike. Join me on the Honda – let’s take a lap together We start with a short straight and then the first difficult section, with an exciting braking area, probably one of the most difficult on the calendar (you drop from fifth to second gear, from around 280km/h to about 96). You move back up the gears to fifth, arriving at the limit to tackle the long right-hander which you take in fourth gear at around 260km/h. You have to be ready to prepare for the change of direction to the left that comes after; the bike tends to slide around and it is easy to make a mistake. This is the start of a very important section if you want to set a fast lap – a series of linked corners that you take in second, making the most of the torque range of the engine. You come out and shift up to fourth to take on the downhill right before the big left hander – the longest on the championship – which can be taken in third, playing with the throttle to find the best possible line. You can take a lot of different lines through here but you must be careful because the track is bumpy. There is a short straight where you shift up from third to fifth and reach around 285km/h before a section of four really fun corners, which you take as one in second gear. Then it’s third, fourth, fifth, up towards the fastest corner in the championship, where tenths of a second can be won and lost as you go through at over 250km/h. It is important to get a good exit from this corner in order to set up your attack on the final section of the circuit: a violently hard braking from sixth gear to first, dropping from 300 to 70km/h. The track is bumpy and it is difficult to stay on the right line. It is important to be fast here because you have three first gear corners where you can make one last attempt to overtake before the charge to the chequered. Marco Melandri