Guintoli blames himself for poor race

The Frenchman tangled with Kurtis Roberts early in the race and then struggled to 19th, nearly a minute and a half behind the victorious Casey Stoner and 24 seconds adrift of his own teammate Makoto Tamada, who Guintoli has invariably outperformed this year.

"I'm disappointed because I had a much better rhythm in practice and the warm-up, and for the race I had a bad start, then I just couldn't get myself together," Guintoli told the official MotoGP website.

"I was very slow, I was pushing really hard to try and get better, and I was getting even slower. It was a really, really strange and really bad race."

The Tech 3 team's Dunlop tyres have sometimes hampered their progress this season, but Guintoli was adamant that there was nothing wrong with his technical package at Sepang.

"The tyres behaved okay, and for sure I could have gone much faster with them," he said. "Today it's down to the rider."

He believes he needs to adjust his riding style for when he returns to Sepang in 2008 - by which time he will be riding for the Pramac D'Antin Ducati team - and to change his mental approach to difficult circumstances.

"I've got to keep this in mind for the next race when we come back here," Guintoli said.

"I've got to try to calm down because I got really upset with myself through the race.

"I need to be smoother here and keep some speed in the corners. It was a bad, bad day."