''We were hoping for quite a high result''In the extreme temperatures that engulfed the German Grand Prix held at the challenging Sachsenring circuit in the picturesque undulating hills in the east of Germany the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team proved to be a difficult weekend
for team riders Sylvain Guintoli and Makoto Tamada.
The weekend looked promising after MotoGP rookie Sylvain Guintoli claimed his best qualifying position of the year in ninth fastest position but unfortunately race day didn¹t reflect his progress. Sylvain failed to finish the race after a mishap during the opening lap of the race caused him to crash.
His teammate Makoto Tamada also had a weekend to forget as he was never on the pace all weekend struggling to be comfortable to the bike to finish 13th.
Makoto Tamada
“This was a very disappointing weekend for me as I never felt happy with the bike. I tried everything but I wasn¹t comfortable and I could never find a good rhythm. During the race nothing changed and I decided to pit to change a tyre to see if that would improve my confidence and make me push hard but still I didn¹t feel good in my riding. I have to think very hard about this weekend and hopefully use it to improve my feeling for next weekend in America.”
Sylvain Guintoli
“To say I¹m extremely disappointed is an understatement as I felt that I could¹ve done something very good this weekend after such a good qualifying. I got off the line well and pushed very hard dicing with Colin Edwards, which was very good for my confidence. At the end of the fourth lap when I was coming into the last corner I noticed that the engine revs dropped to be very low. This caused me to run wide onto the dirty part of the track and I lost the rear, which caused me to highside.
All I can do now is put this behind me and hope to continue with some good progress next weekend at Laguna.”
Hervé Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager
“This weekend is a very big disappointment as we were hoping for quite a high result because last year here we had our best result when we finished just 17 seconds behind the winner. Also Sylvain scored his best qualifying result on Saturday when he was ninth fastest so to come away with these results is very hard to accept. We knew Sylvain was going to push hard as he was determined to make up for his bad starts he has had lately but it was not to be. Sachsenring is a very tight track and if you get offline here it can bite hard and unfortunately that is what happened to Sylvain. As for Makoto I don¹t know what happened as he was off the pace all weekend so it is very puzzling for everyone in the team as they put in so much work to give him the best package possible.”
Yamaha Racing
