Pata Yamaha’s Sylvain Guintoli was disappointed not to have made the podium in today’s opening World Superbike race at Phillip Island after such strong practice and Superpole sessions but got involved in a pack of riders that he couldn’t put a move on.

The Fremchman, who was champion with Aprilia two years ago, wasn’t able to use his T1’s corner speed advantage to post fast laptimes as he didn’t have the track space and couldn’t pass the likes of Nicky Hayden, team-mate Alex Lowes and latterly Tom Sykes, and make a move stick.

“There a lot of positives but after yesterday and Superpole, I hoped we would have done a bit better. It was quite a frustrating race from a rider’s point of view but if you look at the big picture, it’s our first race and we finished only 2.5s off the lead,” he said.

“It was difficult for me to pass, I couldn’t really make any moves. One of the strengths of our bike is to carry corner speed but when you are stuck behind people, it is difficult to use it. But that’s part of the process of turning the R1 into a race winner and now we can move forward.”