Noriyuki Haga will take a ten point lead over Ben Spies into the final round of the World Superbike Championship after cruising to an eighth win of the season at Magny-Cours.

Having slipped two points behind Spies after the American won the opening race in France, the Ducati rider struck back by taking the lead of race two on lap one and never looking back.

By contrast, Spies endured a troublesome race, the Yamaha rider quickly falling away from the lead fight to eventually cross the line more than 18 seconds adrift of Haga.

Despite a rather confusing end to the race when Haga and second place Max Biaggi continued racing for a lap beyond the chequered flag, victory for the Japanese rider also means that Ducati has sealed the manufacturer's title one round early.

With his race win challenge in race one blunted by a tardy start, Haga made no such mistakes on this occasion from fifth on the grid, moving straight past pole sitter Spies off the line before muscling his way up to second position around the long Estoril right-hander.

Having gotten the swift Aprilia off the line well, it was Biaggi that led as the field braked into the Adelaide hairpin, but having seen how difficult the Italian was to overtake during race one, Haga wasted no time in dispatching his sparring partner, slipping up the inside at 180.

Although Spies would attempt to follow through, all he would achieve would be a loss of position to Jonathan Rea.

Despite losing the lead, Biaggi was refusing to allow Haga to sprint away into the distance, the Brno race winner shadowing him up until he made an attempt at passing through the Adelaide hairpin on lap five. Nonetheless, Haga would calmly cut through on the inside on the exit to snatch back the position.

Biaggi would go on to make a second attempt around the outside of Haga into the same bend two laps later, but would instead find the close following Rea slipping through into second position.

Determined to make up for his retirement in race one, Rea set about trying to hustle Haga straight away, the Northern Irishman looking confident as he attempted to pull alongside on the exit of Estoril. Nonetheless, Haga was staying firm, his superiority on the brakes preventing Rea from only ever getting a brief overlap.