Pata Honda riders Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark finished in ninth and tenth places respectively in both races at Sunday’s eighth-round World Superbike championship event at Misano World Circuit in Italy. The races at the 4.226km circuit were won by Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea.

Guintoli enjoyed good starts in both races but, despite running as high as seventh in the early stages, the French rider was unable to hook up with the leading groups, instead becoming embroiled in battles with local rider Ayrton Badovini and his own Pata Honda team-mate, van der Mark.

For van der Mark, a grid position of 15th following problems during qualifying yesterday was a difficult place to start the two 21-lap races. However, the 22-year-old Dutch rider enjoyed flying starts in both outings, with an intermittent electrical issue hindering his progress in the opening race.

The Pata Honda team is now packing its Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines and all associated equipment into flight cases for the next WSBK round at Laguna Seca in the USA on 17-19 July.

Sylvain Guintoli - 9th & 9th

I had to fight hard today in both races; all I saw on my board was +0 – I was being hunted down by everyone! In race one, with the colder track, we had some significant tyre wear in the second half of the race and the rhythm went a little. Race two was more consistent but we’re still missing some pace from the guys at the front. I gave everything I could today and won my personal battles in each race. We have a bit of time now before the next race to try to make some different plans and strategies for the second half of the season, but we need to find something because there is still some pace missing.

Michael van der Mark - 10th & 10th

In race one I had a really good start and made up some places early on. I had a good feeling and was quite fast, closing the gap to the guys in front of me. I passed Sylvain but then I had an issue which seems to have happened quite a lot this season. In the end I finished 10th just behind Sylvain, which was quite disappointing. I got another good start in race two but I was missing a lot of grip from the start. It was difficult to maintain the lap times but in the last couple of laps I was able to close the gap again to Sylvain and had a nice battle with him and Badovini. Sylvain passed Badovini and I went with him and I wanted to attack in the last lap but he was strong and in the end he finished in front of me. I think this is the best we can do at the moment because we are both doing very similar lap times.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

It was not an easy day, that’s for sure. Michael didn’t qualify that well but he had two really good starts, which is not always the case! He fought his way to the back wheel of his team-mate again and that was the maximum for this round I think. Sylvain started further ahead and had two reasonable starts but the pace of the front guys was just too fast for us today. I think both riders are getting the best out of the package at the moment, so it’s up to us to see how we can improve the package for the guys.