Sylvain Guintoli says jumping straight into the top five on his competitive return after five months out injured is a satisfying feat but feels it could have been even greater in the wet race two at the Lausitzring.

The Pata Yamaha rider marked his comeback from a broken ankle suffered at Imola in May with ninth place in the dry race one before capitalising on the challenging conditions in the rain to take his team's joint-best result of 2016 with fifth place.

Despite his joy, the French rider feels breaking into the top four had been possible were it not for battling to get temperature in his rear tyre at the start of the race which denied him the chance to push in the opening laps.

"It is good to be back in the top-five - especially after almost five months away from racing," Guintoli said. "It was also good to just be back racing this weekend. I missed being on the bike a lot.

"Fifth place is a good result for us but saying that, I felt like I really struggled at the start of the race to get temperature and grip from the rear tyre and the bike was not giving me the feel that I wanted. I feel that it's a bit of a lost opportunity as the YZF-R1 was really, really, good for braking and chassis-wise was very good also but I was struggling with traction out of the corners.

"All-in-all I've got to be happy with this, coming back to racing but I also feel like we should have done a lot better. I did everything I could and I almost crashed many times so we'll take this and look towards my home race."

Guintoli is aiming to push on for stronger results over the final three rounds of the season as he looks to secure a ride for 2017, having been edged out of the Pata Yamaha fold for next season as the team opts to take on Michael van der Mark alongside the retained Alex Lowes.