BSB: Guintoli continues to make progress with GSX-R

Sylvain Guintoli continues to take significant steps forward in developing the all-new Suzuki GSX-R1000 for the MCE British Superbike Championship at the first round at Donington Park.

The Frenchman will start eighth on the grid for the opening race after grid positions were taken from combined free practice times due to the cancellation of yesterday’s qualifying. However, the 2014 World Superbike Champion took further steps in warm up to become one of few riders to improve their Friday time in the 20-minute extended session.

“Taking everything into consideration the grid position is not too bad,” Guintoli told MCN.  “We’re happy with the way the progression is going, it’s not easy to come up with a brand new bike and straight away be competitive, which we are, we’re not far. This is a good point. We’ve confirmed the bike has some very good qualities and all we need now is to learn how to use it in the most efficient way.

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“The bike has a lot of power, the engine is very strong. Here in Donington it’s quite difficult to use that as it’s not an engine track but it’s a good way for us to learn how to control it.”

Team-mate Taylor Mackenzie will start 22^nd on the grid after missing most of the second free practice session due to a technical problem that turned out to be a hole in the exhaust.  

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