Worx Suzuki team boss Jack Valentine says there is no pressure on rider Sylvain Guintoli to repeat his Brands Hatch double podium at Oulton Park British Superbikes this weekend.
The French former MotoGP star has done a track day at the Cheshire circuit and driven round it in a car but says he might have to shut his eyes for a couple of the corners.

“The bike has shown through testing, and at Brands, that its base set-up is very good – it’s worked on every track we’ve been to. For this weekend we expect to make only small changes to the settings to ensure Sylvain gets the best balance and feel with the bike. With this being a long 2.6-mile course we’ll make gearing changes too," said Valentine.

“We won’t be pressuring Sylvain, though. It’s a long weekend and with Sylvain being new here we’ll look for a progressive improvement in lap times – top 10 will be fine to start with, but we’ll expect to be at the front by the races.”

Guintoli said: “I’ve ridden nothing like this track before and for some of the corners I think I’ll have to close my eyes for a second! I’ve been around it in a car and after Brands we came here and I rode about 40 laps on a track day. I couldn’t do proper lap times because of the traffic but I got a good idea of the corners and it really is a very nice track.

“It’ll be tough, but there is no reason why we shouldn’t do well here. The team scored a double win here last year, so it suits the bike – and this year's GSX-R1000 is even better."