Just descovered that there were no threads dedicated to this pilot, who occured to be rather, even surprisingly, fast thie weekend!

DUNLOP YAMAHA TECH 3 TEAM CZECH OUT OF BRNO WELL QUALIFIED
dimanche, 19 août 2007

The Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team leave the Czech Republic Grand Prix at the technically demanding Brno circuit with an impressive result locked away in the record books.

In his first year of MotoGP competition, Sylvain Guintoli put his Yamaha M1 at the top of the time sheets at the end of the opening day.

This effort reflected the achievement of last year during the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island when a Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 machine also topped the table.

The team were subsequently in high spirits and in a very competitive one-hour qualifying session on Saturday afternoon Guintoli again battled with the leading factory teams.

In the fight for the race it appeared that the best result of the year was a distinct possibility as he charged through to ninth place. He then managed to close on a another quartet of leading riders that included Valentino Rossi, but the frantic pace of his determined riding caused the rear tyre of Sylvain’s machine to lose it’s competitive edge. He eventually finished in 13th place to score more valuable championship points.

His teammate, Makoto Tamada, could not replicate his result from the previous round in the USA and finished 17th.





Sylvain Guintoli (13th – Fastest lap 1’59.771)

The weekend has been very good. We managed to perform very well on Friday and top the time sheets which was very good and yesterday in qualifying we were just 0.1 seconds behind Valentino Rossi, which confirms the big step forward Dunlop hqve mqde with their qualifying tyres. For the race we made the best choice we had regarding the rear tyre. I didn’t have any problem with the front and I managed to fight through a big bunch but the second half of the race my pace went down because I had a lot of spinning and lost a lot of side grip especially on the left. I did the maximum I could and that’s why I am pleased with my riding this weekend.

I am now really looking forward to Misano. I think it will be pretty even for every tyre company and maybe it will be the only GP where the new tyre rule will really help us so I can’t wait to get there and improve on this weekend’s performance. I’d also like to thank the team and Dunlop for all the hard work they have been putting in.



Makoto Tamada (17th – Fastest lap 2’00.991)

This has been a very disappointing weekend for me. After my eighth place in the last race at Laguna I was expecting a much better result. I chose a different tyre to the one Sylvain used as it seemed to work well in the warm-up this morning but in the race it was very different as after a few laps I could not push hard at all. It was a battle to stay on as there was no grip and the rear was spinning everywhere. I will just forget about this race and hope that Misano gives me the satisfaction and similar result I had at Laguna Seca.



Hervé Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager

This has been a really exciting weekend for us. Sylvain being on top of the time-sheet on Friday was a very big thing for us. We knew the qualifying package was working very well and we were a little bit disappointed yesterday to be 10th on the grid because our ideal qualifying time would have put Sylvain fifth on the grid. Sylvain was quick all weekend but we knew the race would be another story. We chose a tyre that Sylvain had a good feeling with and in the first part of the race he was very competitive. He overtook Checa, West, Nakano Barros and Elias so we were looking quite good but he struggled over the last five laps as the rear grip dropped off. That’s a shame as I feel very sorry for Sylvain. He showed everything he could all weekend and we didn’t get the results that we deserved. C’est la vie.

We have another two days testing here, and Dunlop have a lot of slick and wet tyres for us to test, so hopefully we will find a further step forward for the next races.



The thirteenth round of the 2007 MotoGP Championship will be held at the new look Misano circuit in Italy on August 31 – September 2.

From teamtech3.fr