World Superbike 2003 - Round 12 - Magny Cours

Troy Corser amazingly went down on the warm-up lap and slid in to the airbags. Hodgson led them away this time around with the GSE boys right on his tail. Xaus got an absolute shocker of a start and was languishing down in 12th position on the first lap but by the end of the lap ad made it back to 6th.

The battle up front then quickly turned in to a Ducati Fila and GSE Ducati benefit. Lavilla on the restricted GSX-R riding hard to keep them in sight.

Hodgson and Xaus then pulled away from the GSE boys who were starting to come under attack from Lavilla. Then Laconi had a rear tyre failure and entered the pits for a new tyre. The dilemma facing the Frenchman being that he is 16 points ahead of James Toseland who was running third and thus if Laconi failed to finish Toseland would equal that total. But then on a countback Toseland would get the nod for third in the championship thanks to his race win earlier in the year. Laconi got back out on the circuit just ahead of the leaders who he let past to lap him, then the GSE boys and Lavilla also lapped him as he worked his tyre up to temperature. But Laconi only needed a single point to save his 3rd place in the championship. Laconi and Toseland are of course due to be team-mates next year in the factory Ducati World Superbike squad...

Xaus got the lead from Hodgson and pulled a couple of seconds but then in the final laps Hodgson caught him back up. Then with only a couple of laps remaining Hodgson lost the front in a slow right hander which put him out of the race. This of course means that Toseland was now promoted to 2nd with the four more points that entails. Laconi running around in a position that would earn him a single point, so if Toseland does take that 2nd he will take 3rd in the championship from Laconi.

Xaus takes the win and Toseland gets 2nd by a gnats whisker over Walker after the team-mates had a titanic battle over the final laps.