Melandri had qualified just 12th, but was up to fourth by lap four - and spent much of the race fighting furiously with Dani Pedrosa, Melandri and Loris Capirossi for the final podium position.

But Melandri's hopes came to an early end when a rare problem with his Bridgestone rear saw him fade from fourth to tenth during the final 10 laps.

"Today we were in good shape to finish on the podium," confirmed the 2008 Ducati rider. "After a good start from the fourth row I was able to battle virtually for the whole race in the top five. I had a good pace and the bike felt really good. I could have fought for second but unfortunately I had a problem with the rear tyre that we didn't expect and it slowed me a lot. I tried to finish the race as best as I could. I'm disappointed because we had the potential for a much better result."

It was an equally tough race for his team-mate Elias, who started from the sixth row and struggled through a host of problems to pick up a single point in fifteenth place.

"It has been a difficult weekend and today I suffered from a few different problems that prevented me from riding as I can," said the still-to-sign Spaniard. "I had problems with the front tyre from the start, then at the halfway stage we developed a problem with the electronics and I just tried to finish the race. I want to put this behind me now and just think about Malaysia. Sepang is one of my favourite circuits so hopefully we can have a much better result there."