Sylvain Guintoli will remain with the Ecstar Suzuki squad to contest the next round at Mugello after netting a championship points on his return to the blue riband class.

The MCE British Superbike regular stood in for the injured Alex Rins this weekend and will deputise again in italy before Spanish youngster makes his return at Barcelona.

“It’s a nice feeling to score a point in my home race. We didn’t have too much dry time to work here, and at the end I think we did a good job under the circumstances. I really enjoyed riding the GSX-RR around the Le Mans circuit,” said Guintoli.

“The public was fantastic. I ended the race not too far off of Andrea, which is a positive thing. My goal was to end within one minute from the winner and I almost achieved it. We have to continue working and adapting to the MotoGP riding style, but I really liked working with this team and also racing the Suzuki machine in Le Mans.”