The Superbike takes to the track at Magny-Cours

This weekend it will host the eni FIM Superbike World Championship and will be on stage at the Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit in France for the Fassi French Round, the penultimate of the season, the first for Rea and Kawasaki as World Champions.

The French circuit debuted in the Superbike World Championship in 1991, but the second edition was held only in 2003, with a slightly revised layout of 4411m (140m longer than the original) and has always been part of the world championship calendar since then.
Built on completely flat terrain, the track boasts a very technical mix of long bends and tight hairpins and is notorious for erratic weather and rain, creating an additional challenge for teams and drivers.

With Jonathan Rea crowned World Superbike Champion, with five races to spare, two weeks ago in Jerez, attention is turned to the battle for second place, which sees Chaz Davies 22 points ahead of Tom Sykes.

With 100 points available between now and the season finale in Qatar, the situation is far from decided, although between the two, Davies is the fitter, having scored 140 of the 150 points available in the last three rounds.
However, Sykes has a statistical fact on his side, namely that of never having finished lower than second place in the last three seasons.

The situation was also decided in the race for the manufacturers' title, with Kawasaki winning its first historic world championship crown in race 2 in Jerez, despite the riders' titles of Russell (1993) and Sykes (2013).
The battle for second place instead sees Ducati with a 78 point advantage over Aprilia, which won the manufacturers' classification last year.
With Yamaha's return there will be a further contender for the championship scepter next year.

At Ducati there is a question mark over the rider who will replace Davide Giugliano: in Jerez it was Michele Pirro who got on the Panigale R, while for the trip to Magny-Cours the name has not yet been made official.
The twelfth round of the season will be the penultimate of the very long relationship between Crescent and Suzuki, as well as for the partnership between the Pata Honda team and Sylvain Guintoli.

As wild cards we will see Markus Reiterberger on the track, riding the BMW S 1000 RR of the VanZon Remeha BMW team, with which he is leader of the German Superbike (IDM) standings, and the Polish rider Pawel Szkopek (Szkopek POLand POSITION), who boasts six appearances in WorldSbk between 2004 and 2006 and has good experience of World Supersport.