WSBK – Guintoli and Berger want to bounce back to Miller – Sylvain ” I hurt ” Guintoli

Guintoli and Berger want to bounce back to Miller

WSBK - Guintoli and Berger want to bounce back to Miller - Sylvain '' I hurt '' Guintoli

The first quarter of the season of the WSBK 2011 did not spoil our two French pilots … Injuries and technical problems respectively deprived Sylvain Guintoli and Maxime Berger of a good start. Next Monday’s American event looks better: Gas !

Sylvain ” I’m in pain ” Guintoli

Our two compatriots registered this year in the World Superbike Championship, Sylvain Guintoli and Maxime Berger, have only scored 34 points between them in the first four events of the season (read our).

A very meager booty, especially compared to that of the only leader of the championship: a certain Carlos Checa, also on Ducati 1098R, who has accumulated 145 points in eight races, four times more than Sylvain and Maxime combined..

But even if it means being called a chauvinist – go ahead, the comments are there for that but you have to ar-gu-men-ter properly! -, Site would like to remind that our favorite nos.50 and 121 benefit from extenuating circumstances…

Sylvain Guintoli, 29 points on the clock and 16th in the provisional standings, begins his second season in World Superbike in a much more discreet way than expected. "In Australia, before the fall, I was never outside the top 3", however, recalls the pilot of Drôme origin,"and then I had this accident, since then I am only fighting to regain my full health"…

After his zero point at Phillip Island, Sylvain returns home to the Midlands (England) to prepare for the second round which is played a few kilometers from his home. Unfortunately, the few bruises diagnosed in Australia made him suffer excruciatingly throughout the weekend of the event, and for good reason: as soon as the two "European" races were completed, "we rechecked and found out I had two fractures on my hand and another on my left ankle" !

"The Donington races were the worst I have ever run", assures Guintoli. His two 11th places collected in England are not satisfactory, but far from being ridiculous in retrospect. And the same goes for his results in the Netherlands.

"In Assen when Kuba (his teammate Jakub Smrz, Editor’s note) fell I was behind him and I couldn’t avoid him", observes our ex-star of the Grand-Prix, or star of the GP of France 2007 at least !

"I damaged the cruciate ligament in my left knee so now I find myself with a loose knee too, that’s cool !", Sylvain quipped before putting it into perspective:"it’s not such a big problem to ride a motorcycle, it’s like that"…

Two weeks ago at Monza, the Ducati Effenbert-Liberty Racing rider finished in 10th and 7th places. Here again, the 15 points gleaned do not weigh heavily against the 50 or 43 recorded by the two rookies of the official Yamaha team, Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri.

On the other hand, our Frenchie can congratulate himself on having won for the manufacturer of Bologna the best result of the weekend – and his this season at the same time -: "theoretically this weekend must have been very bad but we got a good result and I found some semblance of form", Sylvain commented after the Italian races.

"The next tracks, Miller, Misano, Aragon, are favorable to our bike so I expect a lot", now predicts the Ducati rider, not quite at 100% of his physical capacities but at 110% from a motivation point of view !

"My little mistake in Australia just ruined my start to the season", Sylvain Guintoli readily admits,"it’s not the end of the world but I’m really far in the standings, now it’s a question of showing myself fast and getting good results without thinking about the championship".

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