Guintoli from ‘zero to hero' for PATA Racing
Sylvain Guintoli couldn't have dreamt of a better start to his WSBK adventure with the PATA Racing Team on Sunday as he powered to the win in race 2 of the UK Round at Silverstone. For the Frenchman, this was his second win of the year on a Ducati 1198, his first having been achieved at Assen, in similar wet conditions, with the Effenbert-Liberty Racing team.
Having concluded his collaboration with the Italo-Czech squad at Brno, Guintoli didn't take long to step up to the mark with the Italian team run by Daniele Carli. Third in the Tissot-Superpole, he made an error in race 1 by starting on wets when the track was virtually dry in the early stages, but after the break he powered to a convincing win to put behind him the recent difficult period.
"What a day and what a last couple of weeks actually! It's been an up-and-down road and after Brno it was a difficult experience but I just bounced back quickly with the PATA team and this Ducati. All weekend it's been going well really, except the first race where I made the wrong choice and I went from zero to hero! I was really angry with myself and decided to start fast, hammer it down and see what happens. I was feeling good, and saw that nobody was behind. When the rain came back I eased off, I didn't want to make a mistake for a podium and be a zero to zero! Loris came back, we were looking at each other because the conditions were quite tricky. So it was the first win for me and the PATA team and hopefully there'll be many more to come."
With this win Guintoli moves into eighth overall on 122.5 points despite two no-scores in the previous round at Brno.
