Tech 3 slightly disappointed to miss third

Guintoli was the first rider to switch from wet to intermediate tyres, and consequently vaulted into podium contention. He caught and passed third-placed Toni Elias, but ran wide and had to settle for fourth - still the Tech 3 team's best ever finish.

"Straight after the race I was very bitter. Honestly, not happy," said Poncheral.

"Because second or third, you don't really care. Fourth or fifth, you don't really care. But third to fourth is a big difference.

"It would have been great to be on the podium, especially with the current situation and all the talking about the possibility of having a mono-brand next year. To be on the podium on Dunlop, after two years of hard work, especially in Japan, would have really been something special."

But Poncheral said that once the result sank in he was able to appreciate what Guintoli and the team had achieved.

"This morning we were 18th on the grid and after the warm-up we were nowhere in the wet situation. I was really thinking that it would be one more disastrous Japanese Grand Prix, because we have had a few," he said.

"Fortunately the rain stopped and Sylvain just managed to make an incredible race. Even when we started on full wet tyres he was recovering a lot of time and positions. He did a really clever move by coming in very early."

Guintoli said he had decided before the start that he would gamble on a tyre change.

"I thought because the track was trying, if it didn't rain again we should just have a bet," he said.

"I decided to pit very early because I thought I could go faster with the intermediates, which I did straightaway. Then I just tried to stay concentrated.

"Then when I saw P4 and they were quite a way away, I was pushing so hard. I saw the podium was there. It's such an adrenaline rush just thinking about it. At the end I managed to overtake Toni but I made a mistake and then we both pushed very hard and I couldn't get back on him.

"I didn't want to hold my position, I carried on pushing in case he made a mistake, but I was not close enough to attack him."

When asked how he would have responded had someone predicted in advance that he would take fourth, Guintoli joked: "I would have taken a bet - fourth position for me was probably 200-1..."

The French rookie was delayed in the pits because he had made a snap decision near the end of the lap to come in, and had not followed the agreed plan of signalling his intentions a lap ahead.

Tech 3 were therefore unable to prepare for Guintoli's arrival, but Poncheral reckoned the time gained by the extra lap on intermediates negated that lost in the pits.

"Of course we lost some time, but on the other hand, as he said, if he had done the sign and done another lap we would have gained some time in the pits, but we would have lost on the lap," he said.

"His first lap out was almost five, six seconds quicker than his last lap on wets."