Guintoli hopes to 'surprise a few people'

The Yamaha rider made good use of the changing conditions to go from 17th position to leading in just six laps, his progress including passing ten riders on the first lap.

"I feel more confident about everything now," said the Frenchman. "We'll have some good tracks where things will work, and some others where we'll have to work harder.

"The good thing is about being outsiders is we can annoy people," added the former 250cc privateer champion, referring to passing Yamaha works rider Valentino Rossi in the race.

He admitted  having "a little chuckle" after moving ahead of the Italian.

Guintoli, who went on to finish in tenth place after falling down, could be set for difficult race in Italy in two weeks time, as his team's tyre supplier Dunlop had a hard time at Mugello last year, when they scored just one point with Carlos Checa's 15th place.

The long corners are likely to make things hard for his bike to hook up, but the Leicestershire-living Frenchman looks beyond the next race on the championship.

"I'm fast at Barcelona and I like it. At Donington it should be good with the Dunlop experience that have there with British Superbikes, while I love the Sachsenring too; always gone well there. I hope we can surprise people."