Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team’s Sylvain Guintoli achieved the first goal of his home round weekend by finishing Friday in the top 10 to get straight through to Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole 2. However at the end of the day the Frenchman wasn’t celebrating his efforts admitting there was a long way to go before the French Flag would fly victoriously at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.

“Today didn’t feel great, “ conceded Guintoli. “We did improve a little from the morning to this afternoon but we’re still a way away from where we want to be really. I’m in the top 10 so that’s good, but its good and bad because I feel like I’m just not getting what I need to get to do the lap times. The lap times I did, for me here at Magny-Cours is not so good. So it’s a bit of a struggle but we’ll see, we might get some different conditions for the races, which might help so we’ll see, but it hasn’t been a satisfying day. I didn’t enjoy myself today.”

Over the summer break the Pata Yamaha squad were the only team to test at the French circuit. The valuable data gained is priceless for all the Pata Yamaha riders, as any extra track time could be the difference between first and last at the end of the weekend. However, Guintoli was quick to dismiss that it may give his team an advantage heading into Round 11 saying, “We did do a test here but it was only about 25 laps because it rained. I don’t think it was a massive advantage, though we did improve from this morning to this afternoon. But like I said, we still have a long way to go.”

French fans are counting on Guintoli to make their country proud this weekend and Saturday will see the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team rider push for his first home victory of 2016 on Saturday the 1^st of October at 13:00 local time (GMT+2).