SYLVAIN’S SUCCESS...

“I hadn’t been to Suzuka for a long time, so I remembered the track but I didn’t remember it in technical detail. It has also changed a little since the last time I was here, but I was happy to be back because it is one of the tracks I had really enjoyed riding on during my career back in 250s. I rode here back in 2001 and 2003 and so this experience was special with the team, and with Suzuki.

“The bike worked really well and we did a lot of work on the development during a test ahead of the race. Things progressed even more during the race weekend and it was just a really disappointing result as we knew we had a good race pace. We‘ve all said it before, but unfortunately that is just how racing sometimes goes. A small mistake happened really quickly and we lost a lot of time and then we were just fighting to come back.

“As a team it worked really well with Takuya and Josh, as we were all very consistent and fast so everything was there to make a result happen, so I’m really disappointed as it would have been nice to have been on the podium and challenging, but overall the experience has been great.”

Asked whether he would be up for more endurance races, Guinters said: “The endurance races are so draining and difficult but the conditions were not too bad today compared to what I have heard they have been like in previous years. It is still bloody hard though when it’s this kind of temperature and you’re riding for an hour at a time at such a quick pace.

“It has been a rollercoaster! In qualifying I was pushing and I was scheduled for pole position, but I had a small crash. I have really enjoyed the experience and I’m hoping to come again.

“It’s going to be a different challenge going back to BSB. It’s just completely different but here the Suzuki worked well and I think the work we did at Suzuka on the new GSX-R was great so hopefully we can use

that to try and step up the performance in BSB.”