Sylvain Guintoli had his first taste of the Suzuki GSX-RR at Jerez on Monday, as the Frenchman begins his preparation for his race appearance with the Japanese manufacturer at Le Mans.
The 2014 World Superbike champion last raced in MotoGP at the 2011 German Grand Prix for the Pramac Ducati team, and is currently contesting the British Superbike Championship with the Bennetts Suzuki squad.
Guintoli was confirmed as a stand-in for the injured Alex Rins, who suffered a broken wrist in a crash at the Circuit of the Americas, on the run up to last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix and took to the Jerez circuit on Monday for a shakedown.
The Frenchman spent the day adjusting to the GSX-RR and the Michelin tyres, Guintoli completing 37 laps. Despite having never ridden the latest generation MotoGP machinery, Guintoli proved fairly competitive and was just 2.6s off the pace on a 1m41.260s.
“This day was even better than I expected,” he enthused.
“The feeling with a MotoGP bike is something difficult to explain, it’s unique, and this Suzuki GSX-RR is just fantastic.
“For me today was only a few laps to understand how the bike behaves, and also to try to understand the Michelin tyres which I haven’t ridden since 2002, so quite a big time.”
Guintoli was left impressed at the performance of the Suzuki’s engine, and found he was already strong on the brakes and under acceleration, though admits he needs to work on corner entry and corner speed.
The French rider will be back in action today for some private running at Jerez to further adjust to the GSX-RR, before making his first grand prix appearance on home soil since 2008 on May 19-21.
“We managed to improve the lap time step-by-step, and I literally can’t way for tomorrow to keep improving the feeling and work with this fantastic bike and crew.
“The engine is so fast and so smooth, I’m impressed. Now I have also to work on my riding style because looking at the data it looks like I’m already strong in braking and acceleration, but I can improve the feeling with entrance and cornering speed.
“It’s pretty normal as it’s a completely different machine from the one I’m used to race, I was expecting this but I was expecting also my gap from the top to be much bigger, but instead I’m not so far.”
