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He had hinted at it and now he confirms: Manuel Puccetti will take Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli with him to Jerez and Losail for the last two rounds of the championship, completing a team that has had more than its fair share of ups and downs in this season finale.
So, it will be the 2014 title holder with Aprilia to ride the Italian team’s Kawasaki ZX-10R in the race, and he will do it after spending a season with the Suzuki GSX-R in British Superbike, where Sylvain even won a race. Also in 2017, Guintoli raced in MotoGP for the Le Mans, Mugello and Barcelona rounds and he participated in the Suzuka 8 Hours as well.
Satisfaction for team manager Puccetti: “We are enthusiastic to begin this collaboration with Guintoli - Manuel reveals - because he is a former World Champion. He is a great champion and also a really good guy. We are all convinced that we will be able to do really well in these four races scheduled for the two remaining rounds.”
Sylvain has never ridden the Ninja. Does that worry you?
“No, because he is an excellent tester and he has a lot of experience, developed in MotoGP and Superbike. He will get the bike sorted very quickly, partly because our team can count on help from the factory KRT with Rea and Sykes, who give us data to fine tune the chassis architecture and the electronics. I am convinced that Guintoli will already be in the top 5 after a couple of sessions, and top five is our goal.”
Is Guintoli one of your objectives for next season too?
“If the results are as we hope, Sylvain will be on our team in 2018 as well, riding alongside Toprak Razgatlioglu, forming a team made up of one expert rider and one young talent. We are happy with the decision.”
