Sylvain Guintoli did not get his 2011 World Superbike season off on the right foot. Guintoli, who is riding a top level machine for a very well funded and organized team this year, had high hopes for 2011. But a series of early season crashes left the Ducati rider fighting at the back of the pack.
“The start of the season was a bit of a disaster,” Guintoli said. “In Australia, before the crash, I was never out of the top three. Then I had an accident and since then I have just been fighting to come back to fitness.”
After the Phillip Island event, Guintoli was told that he was fit and would be ready to race at Donington Park. Guintoli did race, but he wasn’t fit.
“The situation is that in Phillip Island I was initially told that I was fine and that all I had was big bruising,” Guintoli said. “But I struggled at the next round at Donington and it was difficult to race.
“We rechecked the areas where I was still having pain afterwards and I had a double fracture of my hand and a fracture as well of my left ankle. I also had a bit of ligament damage on the left leg, all the way up to the knee. The Donington race was the most awful one I have ever done, even though I really like that track, because I could not ride properly.”
After Donington, Guintoli had more than two weeks to let his body heal. But his rehabilitation would be stunted by another accident in Assen.
“In Assen when Kuba (his team-mate Jakub Smrz) fell I was behind I could not avoid him and crashed,” Guintoli said. “I damaged the cruciate ligament in my right knee, so now I have a loose knee. Which is well, which is nice! That is not such a big problem to race a motorbike, but it is one of those things.”
Guintoli made a season’s best finish at Monza and still has another week before he’ll take to the circuit again at Miller Motorsports Park. Guintoli knows that the championship is slipping away, but he still hopes to show his pace and win a few events this season.
“We have a great bike,” Guintoli said. “I did my best result in race two at Monza, seventh, and it is a really bad circuit for us because it is a power circuit. So for us it was going to be really bad in theory but we made a good result and I am back to some kind of form now.
“The next few tracks, Miller, Misano, Aragon, are good for our bike so I am expecting a lot now from this. I am feeling better physically even though I am not 100%.
“I really like the bike and get on well with it and it is working very well. The team management put a lot of effort into the quality of the material on the bike and if you go that way you minimize the risk of problems.
“I have plenty of motivation and I know what the bike can do. The results the other riders like Carlos and Kuba have been doing just made more frustration. By making a tiny little mistake in Australia I basically ruined the start of my season.
“It is not the end of the world but I am really far behind in the standings, so now it is about showing some pace and results and not thinking about the championship. It has been good to see the Ducatis doing so well, but for me it was more frustration. It was a very high price to bear for such a tiny little mistake, but that is racing.”
