Marco Melandri (born 7 August 1982) is an Italian retired motorcycle road racer who is a five-time premier class race winner.

Melandri switched to the Superbike World Championship in 2011, earning 22 wins in his first six seasons finishing among the top five every time.

In addition to his European success, he made his debut in 125cc world championship at Brno, Czech Republic as a wild card rider.

He went on to impress many as he earned his first podium in the fourth race of the season, where he finished second in his home Grand Prix at Mugello, Italy.

After securing the 250cc world title in 2002, Melandri moved up to MotoGP class to spearhead Yamaha factory team alongside Carlos Checa in 2003 replacing the departing Max Biaggi.

He joined Yamaha's satellite team, Tech3 in 2004 alongside Norick Abe in order to make way for the incoming Valentino Rossi.

Released from his Yamaha contract after the 2004 season, Melandri was the surprise choice of boss Fausto Gresini to join Sete Gibernau in the Movistar Honda team for the 2005 MotoGP campaign.

Melandri was successful with Movistar Honda in 2005, with a consistent run of podium finishes early in the season, ultimately taking his first two wins in the final two races of 2005 to clinch second place in the championship.

[4] Although he never really challenged his best friend Valentino Rossi for the title, he finished the season strongly as runner-up, with a total of two wins and five other podiums.

With Rossi struggling to find consistency, he was a major challenger, along with Ducati's Loris Capirossi and Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa.

Immediately after Melandri's 3rd-place finish in the 2007 USA's MotoGP round, Ducati announced that he would join its factory team alongside Casey Stoner for 2008 and 2009.

Melandri achieved BMW's best result, at the time, in the Superbike World Championship, with a second place in the season-opening race at Phillip Island, having started 13th on the grid.

[17] Mixed results followed at Imola, Assen and Monza, but Melandri achieved BMW's first Superbike World Championship victory at the European round at Donington Park,[18] leading home teammate Leon Haslam in a 1–2 finish.

[19] On 16 July 2020, it was announced that Melandri would replace Leon Camier at the Barni Ducati Racing Team for the remainder of the season 2020.

In September 2020, another retirement announcement was made midway through the season, due to Melandri's disappointing results and the hope of the Barni team finding better WSBK success with their younger rider Samuele Cavalieri, promoted from their entry in the Italian national CIV Superstock race class.

[20] However, after failing to score a point in the first eight races of the season, Melandri left the team and was replaced by Michael Laverty and then by Stefan Bradl.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap) (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) 1949  B. Ruffo 1950  D. Ambrosini 1951  B. Ruffo 1952  E. Lorenzetti 1953  W. Haas 1954  W. Haas 1955  H. Müller 1956  C. Ubbiali 1957  C. Sandford 1958  T. Provini 1959  C. Ubbiali 1960  C. Ubbiali 1961  M. Hailwood 1962  J. Redman 1963  J. Redman 1964  P. Read 1965  P. Read 1966  M. Hailwood 1967  M. Hailwood 1968  P. Read 1969  K. Carruthers 1970  R. Gould 1971  P. Read 1972  J. Saarinen 1973  D. Braun 1974  W. Villa 1975  W. Villa 1976  W. Villa 1977  M. Lega 1978  K. Ballington 1979  K. Ballington 1980  A. Mang 1981  A. Mang 1982  J. Tournadre 1983  C. Lavado 1984  C. Sarron 1985  F. Spencer 1986  C. Lavado 1987  A. Mang 1988  S. Pons 1989  S. Pons 1990  J. Kocinski 1991  L. Cadalora 1992  L. Cadalora 1993  T. Harada 1994  M. Biaggi 1995  M. Biaggi 1996  M. Biaggi 1997  M. Biaggi 1998  L. Capirossi 1999  V. Rossi 2000  O. Jacque 2001  D. Kato 2002  M. Melandri 2003  M. Poggiali 2004  D. Pedrosa 2005  D. Pedrosa 2006  J. Lorenzo 2007  J. Lorenzo 2008  M. Simoncelli 2009  H. Aoyama 2010  T. Elías 2011  S. Bradl 2012  M. Márquez 2013  P. Espargaró 2014  T. Rabat 2015  J. Zarco 2016  J. Zarco 2017  F. Morbidelli 2018  F. Bagnaia 2019  Á. Márquez 2020  E. Bastianini 2021  R. Gardner 2022  A. Fernández 2023  P. Acosta 2024  A. Ogura