Magny Cours is just about as far away from the coast as it's possible to get, smack bang in the middle of France. It's a beautiful circuit, with a combination of elevation changes, fast curves, tight, technical sections, basically everything a rider could ask for. It's also brilliantly surfaced, open and has great views for the large crowds that always make the pilgrimage here for the final round.

This year was shaping up to be a true classic as a run of poor luck for season-long championship leader James Toseland had reduced his lead from an unassailable distance to an all to easily beatable twenty nine points. While finishing the first race ahead of Biaggi and Haga would tie the championship up there and then, neither of those riders are known for making life easy for people trying to beat them.

The weather at Magny Cours can play a major part in events, as it's not unheard of for things to get decidedly damp. Which is a great leveller. Rain, however, was not the problem this weekend. No, a distinct lack of visibility threatened to queer the pitch instead as fog and low cloud hung around the circuit each morning, delaying proceedings and generally mucking things up.

Friday practice and first qualifying were somewhat up and down affairs, with some unusual faces appearing at the front of the field. In particular, Max Neukirchner was absolutely on fire, placing his Suzuki Germany GSX-R 1000 well up the table. The Alto Evolution team were struggling with setup, though sheer talent and local knowledge, perhaps in differing proportions, kept both their riders in the cut for superpole.

Superpole started with Tiberio who was quickly beaten by Steve Martin. Rolfo thrashed Martin's time and managed to keep pole through Muggeridge's and Fabrizio's laps, but Nieto was on form this weekend and beat Rolfo's time. Biaggi had qualified quite badly and therefore was seventh out, but he redeemed himself to his team by taking pole from Nieto and keeping it from Smrz and Xaus. Now...Toseland has never been one to go out with a whimper, and he is moving up next season to Moto GP, so he came out on track and beat the lap record, getting pole from Biaggi at the same time. He also managed to keep his pole position through the efforts of Lanzi, Corser, Laconi, Neukirchner, Haga and Bayliss. This meant that he got awarded the new Hanspree television on the top spot of the grid to go with a new Breil watch to add to his collection.

Race one proved to be good television as it had blood, violence, drama, comedy and romance. The romance being the shots of the riders' wives and girlfriends looking adoringly at their sweethearts, of course.

Blood and drama occurred already on the first corner of the first lap when Lorenzo Lanzi managed to somehow lose the back, and highsided when trying to correct his mistake. This led to a big crash in the middle of the front pack on the first corner at the beginning of a race, and miraculously nobody was knocked off, but tears came to the eyes of the British fans when Toseland ended up running onto the gravel to avoid collision and ended up at the back of the pack. (I must admit even I shed a tear...)

Violence, however, was a completely different story. Every overtake made involved pushing bikes out of the way, paintwork on paintwork action. Corser had started off the race in first, but by lap two Haga had nudged him out of the way and taken the limelight. Max Neukirchner, after riding fantastically for superpole, continued to shock the spectators as he ended up in the top pack working to overtake Troy Corser as well. Sadly, when the young German Suzuki rider did manage to take second from Corser he did a big wobble which resulted in Corser taking him straight back again. More violence happened when Biaggi ran wide and ended up further down the position chart, where Toseland managed to chase him through many rough overtakes to make sure that the championship trophy could still be seen. On lap eight there was a sweet moment when Rolfo let Toseland past to catch up with Biaggi even more - fantastic sportsmanship - which led to Toseland being in ninth place.

More violence happened when Neukirchner once again tried his luck with overtaking Corser. I am imagining that after this battle they had to scrape each other's paint off their bikes, but Corser kept his place well. Meanwhile Toseland managed to overtake Laconi and was once again on Biaggi's case.

By lap fourteen Haga had made a gap and Bayliss started to hassle Neukirchner. This led to another very rough overtake with more paint being exchanged when Bayliss finally pushed Neukirchner out of the way and started to battle with Corser. This battle made many of the media shout and gasp but Bayliss eventually got what he wanted and landed himself in second place, leaving the podium finish results as Haga, Bayliss and Corser

Race two started comically as Roby Rolfo managed to get to the wrong place on the grid after the warm up lap and there was a bit of a scene when Fabrizio realised someone was in his place and had to try and get Rolfo's attention to tell him to move up another row. The race started with Haga immediately taking the lead followed by Corser and Biaggi, Toseland was back in around fifth, which was OK because if he finished sixth place and upwards he would have won the championship anyway. On lap two Biaggi had a big moment and almost fell off the bike, but pure skill and control helped him manage to hold his place and he went on to stay in front of Nieto and cause a big gap to form. By lap five Haga had formed another gap between himself and Corser and Toseland was working hard to overtake Nieto into fourth. Sadly James did not manage to do this as Neukirchner soon overtook him and kept him down in sixth place but on lap seven Neukirchner crashed out of the race after lowsiding the bike. Also on this lap Biaggi did another big wobble but once again managed to hold third place after overtaking Corser on lap ten after Corser ran into the dirt to avoid crashing straight into Biaggi.

Toseland sadly was not destined to finish in fifth place as Bayliss soon caught up and overtook him on lap sixteen, but fans were not too worried as if Toseland finished sixth he would have the championship title and Rolfo was straight behind him defending his place well.
Corser ran out of luck once again when Fonsi Nieto appeared out of nowhere after catching up from the gap that had formed and literally nudged Corser's Yamaha out of the way so that he could get through into third place.

This left the finishing positions as Haga, Biaggi and Nieto. This also made James Toseland the World Superbike Champion for 2007 after leading from the very beginning, his second time in the top spot and a wonderful way to say goodbye to the friends he has made over the years at superbikes.

Race One

1 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
2 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
3 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
4 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
5 Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki)
6 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
7 James Toseland (Honda)
8 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
9 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
10 Roberto Rolfo (Honda)

Race Two

1 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
2 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
3 Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki)
4 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
5 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
6 James Toseland (Honda)
7 Roberto Rolfo (Honda)
8 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
9 Michel Fabrizio (Honda)
10 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)

Championship Standing after thirteen rounds:

1 James Toseland 415
2 Nori Haga 413
3 Max Biaggi 397
4 Troy Bayliss 372
5 Troy Corser 296
6 Ruben Xaus 201
7 Lorenzo Lanzi 192
8 Roby Rolfo 192
9 Max Neukirchner 149
10 Michel Fabrizio 132

LB

STOP PRESS Sadly, not everything went as happily as Toseland's victory this weekend. As press we have just discovered that Norick Abe died last night as a result of a road accident in Japan. We would just like to send our deepest sympathies to all his friends and family.