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Melandri secures Valencia success
 Melandri ended the season with successive wins in Turkey and Valencia VALENCIA, Spain -- Italy's Marco Melandri clinched second place behind Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP world championship after winning the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix. The former 250cc world champion, who notched up his maiden MotoGP victory last time out in Turkey, led from the start of the 30-lap race. He held off rival Nicky Hayden to ensure he finished 14 points ahead of the American in the standings. Rossi, who started the race back in an unaccustomed 15th place on the grid after struggling in qualification, charged through the field to take third place but was frustrated in his attempt to equal Mick Doohan's record of 12 race wins in a season. The Yamaha rider, who wrapped up his fifth premier class world title in Malaysia in September, finished off the podium in only one of this season's 17 races and won the championship by a massive 147-point margin over Melandri. Hayden was third in the championship ahead of Rossi's team mate Colin Edwards, who was the only rider to score points at every race this season. Spain's Carlos Checa confirmed his fine end-of-season form with a fourth-place finish on his Ducati in front of his own crowd, ahead of Alex Barros, Max Biaggi and Loris Capirossi. "It's unbelievable, it was a wonderful race," said Melandri. "I started the race thinking about the championship position but when I led into the first corner I thought about winning the race. It's difficult to explain my emotion at the moment." Rossi, who crashed during qualification on Saturday, said his poor grid position had made victory almost impossible. "I made a mistake yesterday and we struggled too much with the bike," he said. "We understood the problems this morning but it was too late to try and win. I made a good recovery but we need to make a better effort next time." Melandri got off to a flier off the front row and beat fellow Honda rider Hayden into the first bend, while pole sitter Gibernau dropped back to third. Gibernau stayed with the front two for a three laps but he ended a frustrating season with another disappointment when his engine blew after just three laps. Rossi, who had only started lower on the grid once in his previous 156 race starts in his second 125cc race in the Indonesian Grand Prix in 1996, leapt to eighth spot by the end of the opening lap. He proceeded to charge through the field into third, but struggled to make inroads on the leading pair on the tight and twisty circuit and finished up just under three seconds adrift of Hayden. The American made a daring bid for race victory on the final corner, but Melandri closed the door and held on to win his second race in the row. Swiss rider Thomas Luthi wrapped up the 125cc world championship when he crossed the line in ninth place behind race winner Mika Kallio. The 19-year-old Honda rider, who won in France, the Czech Republic, Malaysia and Australia, became the first Swiss rider since Luigi Taveri in 1966 to win the 125cc world title. The 124,000 fans who packed the Ricardo Tormo circuit were given something to cheer about with a Spanish one-two in the 250cc race with world champion Dani Pedrosa holding off Jorge Lorenzo to win on his final appearance in the category. The 20-year-old Catalan, who has won three consecutive world titles in the 250cc and 125cc categories, will move up to MotoGP class to join Melandri and Hayden in challenging the Rossi dominance next season. 
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