Guintoli battles fractured shoulder blade

The Frenchman injured his shoulder after crashing on the entry of the 'Hayshed', a fast right-hander towards the end of the lap. Tumbling through the gravel, Guintoli fractured his left shoulder blade.

Despite the pain from his injured shoulder, Guintoli fought through it to qualify fourteenth, just a tenth of a second behind teammate Toni Elias.

"I have a lot of pain in the left shoulder," explained Guintoli. "I have fractured the left shoulder blade and like this it is really hard to push to the maximum.

"Edwards has allowed me to follow him in the fast lap and I conquer a good lap time. Tomorrow it will be anyway really hard for me due to my physical conditions, but I will give my best as always.

The team's technical director Fabiano Sterlacchini confirmed that Guintoli had been warned against riding in this afternoon's qualifying session, but took part anyway: "Sylvain has injured his left shoulder blade and notwithstanding the doctors suggested him to don't ride this afternoon, he preferred to step on his bike and with his physical condition he hasn't done so bad."

Elias had troubles of his own, struggling for grip in cooler conditions: "I found the same problem as yesterday with the tyres. There was the same temperature and the feeling was, unfortunately, the same. We kept the same handicap and like this it was impossible to push to the maximum."