Sylvain Guintoli’s crash from the second race of Sunday’s Aragon Round brought an end to the longest ever points-scoring run in World Superbike history. Up until he lost the front end at Turn 14, Guintoli had finished in the top 15 of every single race since the second encounter at Imola back in 2013 – therefore including every race of his title-winning 2014 campaign.

“Just twisted my neck again [smiles], so that didn’t feel so good, but I’m alright,” the Pata Honda World Superbike Team rider reported. “The feeling was not as bad in Race 2. In Race 1 we had some limitations, struggling with the pace. In Race 2, I thought we could do a little bit better, but again we had some problems with the gearbox. I was hunting the group in front and catching them, but then had a problem with the gearbox which made me lose some time. I was pushing to try and come back and lost the front. I think I could have been in the fight for sixth position, but that’s not where we want to be. We just have to keep working.”

Reminded of the fact that Honda motorcycles have registered several strong results at Assen over the last few seasons, Guintoli is unsure that next weekend’s Dutch encounter will deliver the same sort of outcomes.

“I don’t know,” he begins to sum up. “This year, things are different. We were expecting the rules to suit the Honda a lot better but that is not the case. It is actually worse. We are struggling. I don’t know…maybe we have to do a bit of a rain dance there. It’s getting to the point where we don’t know what to do anymore.”

The crash means Guintoli leaves Aragon with one ninth place finish to his name, whereas team-mate Michael van der Mark retired from Race 1 with technical problems before racking up an eighth place finish later in the day.