Valentin Guillod happy with the first GP win of his career
Valentin Guillod became only the second Swiss rider to win a Grand Prix this century when he stood on the top podium for the Standing Construct Yamaha team last week in Spain. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of Arnaud Tonus, who won in Brazil last year. Guillod rode a brilliant second series in Talavera de le Reina, which is also a milestone in his career.
“I said it as a child… one day I want to win a GP,” he said. “Arnaud already did it to me, but that's life. So I am the next Swiss man to win a GP and I am happy that my name is now on the list.”
For Guillod it was his first podium finish with the Standing Construct since the Belgian team switched to the YZ250F Yamaha engines last winter. The Swiss is therefore in his last MX2 season due to his 23rd birthday at the end of the year. He finished fifth in the sand of Valkenwaard for the European Grand Prix and then did thorough testing with the French tuning specialist Akira to further develop the factory engine.
“We continued to work on the bike because I didn't think I had the right feeling on it.” Guillod said after he got off to a bit of a slow start with just top ten finishes and some problems he had when the MX2 starting gate fell down. “The suspension was good, but we still lacked some power in the engine. But now I'm very satisfied… I just have to work on my starts. I was second or third in the first corner after the start of the second heat, but when the starting gate fell I was perhaps only twentieth, we have to keep working on it.”
Guillod naturally felt at home on the narrow hard circuit of Talavera. Yamaha released a scrub photo of the #92 on Saturday where the former European champion appeared to be playing with the laws of physics. This of course continued on Sunday when he put Dylan Ferrandis under pressure for the lead with two laps to go. Guillod rode around with confidence. “On Saturday I already felt good on the bike,” he said. “When I saw that photo of the scrub, I thought for a moment that's not me. So it was very low and so cool. It showed that I felt really good. In the first heat I almost crashed on this jump… but I don't think many people saw it.”
Text: Adam Wheeler / OTOR
Photo: Bavo Swijgers
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