The 4.411km circuit in the centre of France is now the traditional stopping off point of the SBK season, and for the official Kawasaki team its mix of fast corners and hard Braking zones should allow both riders and machines to show their true capabilities to the max.

Regis Laconi has podium form at his home circuit in previous seasons, whereas Nieto is looking to this weekend to break his Magny-Cours hoodoo, as he has yet to have a top ten finish in France, despite showing some great pace in 2006.

Regis Laconi: “I hope that Magny-Cours will be even better for us than the previous round in Germany but I will be trying my best to be higher up than seventh. They made a new surface on the circuit and that is important because it will be better than the old one, especially in the wet. So we’ll see.”

Fonsi Nieto: “We had better results in Germany than we thought we might have, so that makes me very hopeful for the last races of the year at Magny-Cours. Last year I went fast at Magny-Cours but I crashed when I was in the battle for the podium. This year I hope I can be fast again but the most difficult thing to consider may be the weather at this time of year.”