Some 25-points behind his own team-mate Corser,
Yukio Kagayama will have to pull out two special race finishes to catch and pass Corser in the final standings - but only Bayliss has won more races than Kagayama this year and the Japanese already looks to have secured his seat alongside new signing Max Biaggi.
Kagayama's three 2006 victories could well be improved on in France, and realistically, one of last year's race winners,
Lorenzo Lanzi is almost certainly too far behind to make up the 41-point gap to the Japanese. Lanzi, a winner last year at Magny Cours, is under intense pressure to perform, although it may already be too late to keep his factory Ducati seat alongside Bayliss.
The Italian is also under attack for his eighth in the championship, with PSG-1 Kawasaki riders Chris Walker and
Fonsi Nieto both within 13 points. Walker, dropped by the PSG-1 team for 2007, will be looking to finish his season on a similar high note to his Assen race win, while Nieto goes for win number one, to follow up his podium finish in race two in Holland. Only a single point separates Walker and Nieto as they fight for top Kawasaki honours.
Further back, DFX's
Michel Fabrizio and Winston Ten Kate's
Karl Muggeridge are about to experience the denouement of their own Honda civil war, while Yamaha Motor France's Norick Abe is out to leapfrog both of them on what could be his world championship farewell.
A double no-score for Sterilgarda Ducati's
Ruben Xaus at Imola dropped him down the order but as a former race winner in France (in 2003) he knows his way around Magny-Cours on a Ducati. Third PSG-1 rider,
Regis Laconi, is used to being the top placed French rider in SBK, but as he is currently only 15th in the championship and has never won a race in France his motivation will have a keen edge to it this weekend. The fact that he has yet to score a podium of any colour in 2006 is another reminder to watch the number 55 in action at his home track.
