Melandri announces Kawasaki move

Marco Melandri has revealed that he will race for the Kawasaki MotoGP team next season.

The 26-year-old Italian joined Ducati at the start of this year as team-mate to reigning world champion Casey Stoner but has had a wretched season.

"I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008 and then I am moving to another team," said the Italian, who is 15th in the world championship.

"I will ride for Kawasaki next year so it's a big change for me."

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Melandri began racing in the 125cc championship in 1997 and became the competition's youngest-ever race winner when he triumphed in the Dutch TT a year later at the age of 15, a record broken this year by Britain's Scott Redding.

He has won races at 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP level and was scheduled to join Ducati in 2007 before his Gresini Honda team matched Ducati's offer and kept him for an extra year.

Instead, he joined them for the 2008 and 2009 seasons but has had an appalling run of finishes and bad luck this season, leading to the decision to allow him to leave only one year into his contract.

There is no word yet on who will replace Melandri at Ducati but former world champion Nicky Hayden looks to be the favourite.

Kawasaki's current riders are John Hopkins and Anthony West.

Hopkins has just returned from a string of injuries and West recorded a career-best fifth place in the most recent race in the Czech Republic.

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