Sylvain Guintoli | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Montélimar, France |
24 June 1982 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | Bennetts Suzuki | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 50 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sylvain Guintoli (born 24 June 1982 in Montélimar) is a French professional motorcycle racer. In 2017, he will compete in the British Superbike Championship aboard a Suzuki GSX-R1000. He spent the early years of his career in 250cc Grand-Prix World Championship on private bikes. He was a 500cc 2 stroke test rider for Yamaha and made a single MotoGP start in 2002. Best MotoGP rookie in 2007 for Yamaha, he raced for Ducati MotoGP in 2008. After a serious leg injury in 2009, he recovered and became World Superbike Champion in 2014 for Aprilia.
After having several years in the 250 cc class, he raced in the MotoGP class for the Tech 3 Yamaha team in 2007. He described the opportunity as a "dream come true", but suffered a setback early in testing when he crashed and broke his collarbone, eliminating him from testing for several weeks. He has scored solid lower-order points in 2007, but shone in damp conditions at Le Mans, briefly leading before falling, but rejoining to finish 10th. He finished 4th at the Motegi GP, making this his best MotoGP finish, and Dunlop's best finish on an 800cc bike. There were further regular lower-point finishes in 2007.
He was officially snapped up by Luis d'Antin, to ride the Ducati Desmocedici in 2008 for Pramac d'Antin, now renamed as Alice Team (replacing Alex Hofmann), on Saturday 15 September. Guintoli had an average 2008 finishing 13th in the championship, with his best finish being a 6th in the German Grand Prix. At the end of the season Alice Team did not renew Guintoli's contract and with no other seats free he was forced to leave MotoGP to find a ride.