Pata Honda rider Sylvain Guintoli finshed day one of the eighth-round World Superbike championship event at Misano in Italy in 11th place on combined times this afternoon, with WSBK returnee Max Biaggi topping the timesheets.

The top 12 riders today were covered by just 0.8s and despite French rider Guintoli, 32, and his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP being only 0.3s from a top six position he and his team are confident of further improvement in tomorrow’s free practice and Superpole sessions.

Guintoli’s Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark had a dramatic crash in the first of today’s two 45-minute free practice sessions at the 4.226km Misano World Circuit. The 22-year-old Dutch rider parted company with his CBR at the fast turn 10 at a speed of 263kph but fortunately walked away unscathed.

The crash required some smart work from his crew who were able to finish repairs to his damaged CBR just before this afternoon’s FP2 session; but van der Mark, too, is confident of improvements tomorrow, specifically in the braking areas of Misano’s tighter sections.

Sylvain Guintoli - P11, 1m36.116s

Today was interesting! We’re very close to the top, so that’s encouraging – it’s just a shame that our position is down the order. The rhythm is quite good, and the ideal time, too, so we are quite close. We’ll have to pull something out of the bag to qualify well tomorrow but I think if we keep doing the good work that we’ve been doing we can make another couple of solid races. The new surface makes the track feel better; there’s a bit more grip and it’s a lot less bumpy so it feels nicer to ride. It’s a bit more aggressive on tyres but not as bad as we thought it might be. We’re happy with the tyres, but we need to improve a bit on acceleration. It’s not a good position on the time sheet but it’s not really been a bad day.




Michael van der Mark - P17, 1m36.841s

I think that was probably my fastest ever crash today. I tried to go faster through turn ten but it was not possible! The guys did an awesome job getting the bike back together because it was quite badly damaged. They finished rebuilding just before we went out in the second practice and the CBR was working again without any problems, so full credit to the guys for the job they did. My main issue overall is getting the bike stopped. In the fast-flowing parts of the track I’m quite fast but the problem is in the slower sections. I’m quite sure that tomorrow we’ll find a solution to this.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

Michael certainly did not have an easy day. He had a crash this morning at the fastest corner but thankfully he was not hurt. Of course, it doesn't help to build a rhythm so this afternoon we tried to find some solutions for the front especially. We haven’t found a good compromise so far, there’s some more work to do on the electronics and I think Michael can improve a bit himself as well. I’m sure that it’ll be a different day tomorrow after a good night’s rest. Sylvain has had a positive day. We tried some different settings this afternoon to improve the bike but we’re not quite there yet. Two tenths more would put him higher in the standings and his ideal time is better, too; in the fast split he is quickest, so we need to fix the other splits tomorrow and make a few more steps.