Cal Crutchlow needs just a tenth place finish from the final round of the World Supersport Championship at Portimao in order to be crowned the 2009 champion after capitalising on Eugene Laverty's accident to finish second at Magny-Cours.

Having seen his comfortable advantage in the standings wiped out by a fall from the lead at Imola, honours were relatively even between Crutchlow and Laverty during the early stages of the race in France, the pair trading positions behind Joan Lascorz.

However, just moments after Laverty had made a decisive move on Crutchlow for second on lap twelve, he was in the gravel trap after falling at Chateaux d'Eau, an error that would send him tumbling down the order.

Freeing up Crutchlow to try and challenge Lascorz for victory, a red flag three laps from the end would force him to settle for second place.

Nonetheless, with Laverty only able to claw his way back up to 13th position, the 19 point margin between the two with just a single race remaining means Crutchlow needs only a respectable finish in Portugal to win the title for Yamaha.

"It was a good enough race in the end, I felt like I could have won it, and it was about time we had some more luck,” he said. “Eugene crashed but he was no real problem during the race, the pace was really slow and I knew I could go to low 1'41s towards the end of the race if I needed to.

“We did what we needed to do, and we got a good second place which was nice. The team has worked really hard, so we're all looking to keep it going for the next one at Portimao."