Pata Honda rider Sylvain Guintoli and his team were able to take a number of positives away from an eventful raceday in round five of the 2015 World Superbike championship today at Imola in Italy where both races were won by Jonathan Rea.

The 32-year-old French rider endured problems in getting his Pata Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP set up for the technically demanding 4.936km Imola circuit and consequently started today’s races from 15th on the grid.

The first race was stopped following a crash on lap 11 after Guintoli had fought his way up to seventh place, and he was able to improve to fifth in the six-lap restart after showing a better pace than earlier in the weekend. However, he crashed out unhurt on the opening lap of race two after being forced wide on to a dirtier part of the track.

Guintoli’s Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark had an equally dramatic day, fighting his way back to ninth place in race one – which matched his grid position – after a difficult start had left the 22-year-old Dutch rider languishing in 17th place.

A better start in the incident-packed second outing allowed van der Mark to battle for sixth place with the factory machines of Jordi Torres and Leon Haslam but a coming together with Halsam on lap eight forced van der Mark off the track, resulting in a crash which also put him out of the race.




Sylvain Guintoli - 5th and DNF

Race one was much better than we expected and I was able to race hard and get up to fifth from fifteenth on the grid. The bike felt better than it had done all weekend and we found some good data that allowed us to make some positive changes for the second race. I was really looking forward to race two and with the hotter weather we could use the softer tyre. I was in the pack on the first lap but I had to leave some room for, I think, Leon Camier who dived in to overtake me at turn nine. I had to go wide on to a dirty part of the track and just lost the front. It was one of those first lap racing incidents but it’s a shame because I think we could have recovered well again. But we’ll take the positives and the fighting spirit from race one and move forward at Donington Park which is like a home race for me.

Michael van der Mark - 9th and DNF

It’s been quite a difficult weekend throughout all the sessions but we improved in each session from Saturday morning. In race one I had a problem with the launch control system so that’s why I lost so many places at the start. In the end I rode step-by-step and made up around ten places and, although the pace wasn’t great, it was an improvement again. Then we had the six lap sprint after the red flag when I tried another tyre but I didn’t get any grip, which was quite disappointing. The start of race two was not too bad and I was able to make up some places in the first corner. I moved forward and passed Leon [Haslam] and had a nice fight with Torres. Leon wanted to pass but he hit me and I crashed. I was really disappointed with that because if you look at the end Torres got to the podium and, for sure, a fourth or even a third place might have been possible.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

In race one Michael did not have a good start and he had to come all the way from the back. Sylvain did get a good start and was lying in seventh place, when Michael had come up to eighth, but then there was a red flag. In the six lap race that followed, Michael struggled with the start but Sylvain managed to bring the CBR home in fifth which was a good result considering the weekend we had. It was good to see him fighting and enjoying himself a little. Michael was on the other end of that group and finished ninth. In race two, Sylvain had another good start and got in the middle of the pack. He had to pick another line because another rider was coming through and he just ended up on the dirt. Michael had a decent start and was fighting for fifth but crashed out of the battle. I think he could have finished fourth, or third even, and that gives us some positives to take to Donington.