Guintoli: Dunlop front better than Michelin

The French rider has qualified a career-best 11th for his home race on the Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha. Only Guintoli and teammate Makoto Tamada use Dunlop tyres, with the rest of the field split between Bridgestone and Michelin.

"I can close in on the brakes right to the apex," said Guintoli.

"I saw that when following Colin this morning. The trouble is that he can crack the throttle open and exit better."

Because Dunlop have not won two Grands Prix in the past two seasons, they are exempt from the tyre restrictions of 14 front and 17 rears per rider per weekend that apply to Michelin and Bridgestone.

"The newer rear qualifier makes an enormous amount of difference, but essentially during qualifying I found that the more I relaxed the faster I got. It's good for the mentality!" said Guintoli.

Dunlop's Richard Johnson, who engineers the Frenchman's tyres, said: "We have three tyres for the race, but the pace he did this afternoon was good, doing 14 laps on a rear. We'd really like another half a second, but the weather may decide things tomorrow."

Guintoli is worried about the potential of accidents at the tight first corner in tomorrow's race.

"I just don't weant to get involved with any bad stuff," he said. "If I'm top 10 I'll be very happy indeed."

The 250cc graduate has impressed many people this weekend at Le Mans, and autosport.com understands that other teams are taking an interest in talking to him about the future.