Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli came away from the World Superbike weekend at Laguna Seca with two fifth place finishes, and the lack of podiums has resulted in the Frenchman dropping to third in the championship standings. The rider feels he is 'still lacking' something and wants to start wining races again.

Guintoli dominated in race one, before the second red flag and ended up crossing the line in fifth, as Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes stormed on ahead to take the win. In the final race the England based rider struggled in the first couple of laps to keep pace with the lead pack, and the gap behind the four leaders kept him from improving his position. His team-mate Eugene Laverty took the victory and now has a one point lead over Guintoli in the championship.

The racer expected to be winning podiums on Saturday and Sunday, and has vowed to get ‘focused’ again, so that he can come away with maximum points at his home round at Magny Cours this weekend.

“I expected much more and, all things considered, the start was good. I felt like I could pass Tom and Eugene, but instead I came under attack from Melandri and Giugliano and dropped back behind the lead group. The pace was really fast and when you lose a few metres it's hard to make up that gap,” said Guintoli.

“Like Saturday, when I'm in the middle of the pack I'm lacking something. I'm unable to maintain the same pace that I can set when I'm riding by myself like I was in the first two starts Saturday.

“It's something I need to work on because we didn't make any changes to the bike compared to Saturday. I need to get focused again, I'm not lacking in speed since Saturday when I was out front I was able to be very fast. Magny Cours is coming up in just a few days and that's my home race where I hope to make up some important points”.