Sylvain Guintoli concluded the 2016 season with the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team, and Yamaha's returning year in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, with an almost fairy-tale ending, closing in on second position at the mid-point of Sunday's final race in Qatar.

However, a red flag on the eighth lap meant it was not to be and a hard-fought fourth position in the 10-lap restart proved to be his swansong.

Rapid from the off, Guintoli looked to be easily on for a double podium as the last race of the year got underway. Running third from the first lap, an early tussle first with Tom Sykes and then Xavi Fores was soon put to rest as he confidently got into a smooth rhythm. Picking up the pace as he broke the chasing pack and headed for second he was untimely stopped by the red flag, as Saeed Al Sulaiti’s bike left oil on the track. A clean-up operation and quick restart procedure was engaged shortly after and the race was reduced to a 10-lap dash.

A disappointing restart saw Guintoli fighting from fifth place on the opening lap, with the newly-crowned Champion Jonathan Rea dropping him to sixth a few corners later as his pace on new rubber failed to match that of his earlier effort.

Regrouping, the Frenchman continued his charge, launching to fourth after as many laps and hunting for the trio ahead. With time in the sprint race quickly running out, he was ultimately unable to bridge the gap needed to remount the podium.

Consolidating fourth at the flag to round out his most successful weekend of the season, Guintoli finished 11th in the final standings on 141 points, having completed 15 of the 26 races.

Guintoli commented, “It was a shame about the red flag that's for sure, because we had a very strong pace on used tyres but were lacking the outright pace with the new tyres. For the first race, it was a perfect race for me, a perfect start and a perfect first-half anyway. I had a really good start and didn't lose too much in the opening laps, managed to hang in there and then when the red flag came out, it was on two or three laps where I had been catching Tom and pulling away quite a lot from fourth, so it looked and I felt really good.”

“In the restart I tried to fight as much as I could but our pace with new tyres just wasn't strong enough. It's a shame, it would have been a podium without the red flag but we've finished on the strongest performances of the year and I feel like I'm ready to fight another day.”