Guintoli delighted with pace

French rider Sylvain Guintoli was hugely encouraged by his sixth fastest time after the first day's free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi

The wet-weather specialist, who has still to secure a ride in the top flight for 2009, was fifth fastest in the damp first hour, but maintained his pace to stay in the top ten in the drier second session on the satellite Alice Ducati.

"We managed to be competitive today in wet and dry track conditions," said Guintoli. This gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the racing weekend. We are really fast on this track apart from the third sector where I need to improve my riding style.

"The bike is surely very competitive here. My results have improved a lot in the last races and I hope this will allow me to find a good bike to race for next season."

Toni Elias, who seems set to re-join the Gresini Honda team after a spate of strong performances in the second half of the season, was sixth.

"I am very happy because today I have sensibly improved my performances with wet surface," said the Spaniard. "For me this is very important. When the track dried out I found some complications and I have to improve a lot, but notwithstanding this we are already in a good position not too far from the best.

"Tomorrow the weather should be better and this will allow us to improve our lap times also with the dry track."