Guintoli ruled out for ten weeks

Added on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Sylvain Guintoli has been ruled out of the British Superbikes championship for up to ten weeks after breaking a fibia and tibia in his right leg at Donington.

The Suzuki rider collided with HM Plant Honda rider Josh Brookes at the Melbourne Hairpin on the parade lap of yesterday’s round four meeting – a crash which was later attributed to a brake failure on the Honda.

Brookes left the scene of the accident unharmed but Guintoli was clipped by his bike as he went down and was left the circuit on a stretcher.

Scans later in the day revealed two broken bones in the Frenchman’s right leg with a ten week lay-off expected for the former MotoGP rider, ending any title hopes for Suzuki’s sole rider and one of BSB’s flagship names.

“The whole team are really disappointed for Sylvain,” Suzuki team manager Jack Valentine told Crash.net. “He has proven to be such a high quality rider, so to have this happen is very disappointing. He has a broken tibia and fibia, which looks like it will need pinning. It means he will be out for the next few weeks.”

Suzuki have confirmed that they will be drafting in a replacement rider for the remainder of the season, starting with this weekend’s round at Thruxton.

“We will stay calm about the matter and have a meeting in the morning. Then we’ll make some decisions about how to take the team forward at Thruxton.”

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