Racing: Will it be Haga or Spies?

The penultimate round of the 2009 world superbike will be held in France this weekend, with Noriyuki Haga and Ben Spies set to continue their grinding battle for championship honours.

After a stunning performance last weekend at Imola, Haga (Ducati) now leads the title by 3pts over Spies (Yamaha) in what is shaping as the closest finish to a season since Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards fought out an absorbing battle in 2002.

The tricky Magny-Cours layout is on hosting duties this weekend, and contains a number of fast sections with slow hairpin-like turns.

The layout certainly pushes all the right buttons for Haga, who has finished on the podium in eight of the last 10 races, three of those victories.

On paper, that must give Haga the edge over Spies, although the American surely won't put in another below par performance like he did at Imola - notwithstanding that he was caught up in some turbulence caused by other riders.

"I like the track and over the last years I've had some fairly good results," said Haga.

"I really need to repeat the double win of 2007 again this season and will go all out to do just that. Imola gave us good points, enough to regain the lead, but we only have a 3pt advantage so this weekend is extremely important."

Haga will also be pleased he's Ducati-mounted this weekend, as the Italian manufacturer has taken the lion's share of wins at Magny-Cours with nine, followed by Yamaha (three) and Honda with one.

The same enthusiasm can also be said for Haga's teammate Michel Fabrizio, who won his second race of the season at Imola and still has a mathematical chance of taking the title.

He is 61pts down on Haga, so his chances are certainly slender - and he may have to help Haga out if he's under the pump from Spies.

On the Aussie side of the ledger, Karl Muggeridge (Suzuki) will again join Troy Corser (BMW) and Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) as he continues to deputise for the injured German star Max Neukirchner.

Corser's Imola went bust because of brake problems, so he's determined to rebound hard at Magny-Cours.

"I am confident that the team has found out what caused the brake problems so that I will be able to get to grips with the Magny-Cours circuit right from the start of practice on Friday," said Corser.

"Our team has never been to Magny-Cours before, so we will have to put in a lot of hard work on day one and try and find a good bike set-up as soon as we can.

"The recent improvement of our bike is making riding an enjoyable experience and as long as we don't have any problems like last weekend, I think we can challenge for a top six or seven place for sure. But anything can happen in racing and we may get even better results if everything goes our way. We shall have to see."

Unless Corser can find something special, Max Biaggi (Aprilia) and Jonathan Rea (Honda) are likely to cause the most disruption for the top three championship runners.

Biaggi was lighting fast at Imola and led race one save for the last three laps, while the prodigiously gifted Rea was extremely fast in practice and qualifying before self-destructing in the races.

In world supersport, a crash by Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow at Imola threw the championship wide open.

The British rider now only has a 2pt lead over Honda's Eugene Laverty, with 2007 world champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) way back in third, ahead of Imola retiree Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki).

On current form, the Australian contingent of Garry McCoy (Triumph) and Honda trio Anthony West, Andrew Pitt and Mark Aitchison don't have the pace to mix it with the front runners, although the tight Magny-Cours layout may bring the field closer together.

There will be live coverage on Fox Sports 1 at 8.30pm this Sunday, followed by a one-hour highligts package on SBS at 12.30pm on October 11.

Superbike standings (after round 12 of 14):
1 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Ducati 391
2 Ben Spies, America, Yamaha 388
3 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, Ducati 350
4 Jonathan Rea, UK, Honda 263
5 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia 257
6 Leon Haslam, UK, Honda 219
7 Carlos Checa, Spain, Honda 183
8 Tom Sykes, UK, Yamaha 176
9 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati 151
10 Shane Byrne, Great Britain, Ducati 149
15 Troy Corser, Australia, BMW 76
18 Broc Parkes, Australia, Kawasaki 41
25 Karl Muggeridge, Australia, Suzuki 13

Current supersport standings (after round 11 of 13)
1 Cal Crutchlow, UK, Yamaha 210
2 Eugene Laverty, Ireland, Honda 208
3 Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Honda 153
3 Joan Lascorz, Spain, Kawasaki 138
5 Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha 115
6= Anthony West, Australia, Honda 104
6= Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda 104
8 Garry McCoy, Australia, Triumph 82
9 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Honda 71
10 Massimo Roccoli, Italy, Honda 62