To end the World Superbike weekend at Magny Cours, we’ve got another gallery of images with some of the best looking paddock and grid girls for you to enjoy.

Check ‘em out and you’ll also be saying ooh la la.

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With both MotoGP and World Superbikes running on the same day (they definitely have to avoid calendar clashes), you also get to enjoy this big gallery of pics that we’ve picked our for you from the penultimate round of the season at Magny Cours.

Fans were treated to some awesome racing and also helped celebrate three different championship titles with Carlos Checa in Superbikes, Chaz Davies in Supersport and Davide Giugliano in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup.

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Magny Cours was definitely Carlos Checa, Althea Racing and Ducati’s best day of the year. Not only did the Spaniard win his first ever championship title, Althea Racing brought home two titles, one in World Superbikes and one with Davide Giugliano in Superstock, and Ducati brought home the manufacturers title after losing it last year to Aprilia.

And to think that when Ducati pulled out their factory effort at the end of last year, everyone was moaning and complaining and pointing fingers at Valentino Rossi and Gabriele Del Torchio. I guess Italian Ducati Superbike fans will have to do a few acts of contrition today.

Carlos Checa (1st and 1st)

“Today has been a perfect day, the best day of my career and probably the best day of my life. I thank everyone, every person that has helped me throughout my career, from the beginning up until today, for helping me reach this point. I especially thank Genesio Bevilacqua, my entire team and Ducati of course. I am experiencing so many emotions and must admit that it was very difficult to keep my concentration in the final stages of race one. Then, in race two, I tried to race as fast as I could, doing what I like to do best, and was able to win once more. Now we can relax and relish in this unforgetable moment.”

Continue reading: WSBK Magny Cours rider quotes with race highlight videos

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Carlos Checa ended a perfect weekend at Magny Cours by winning race 2. It was the new 2011 World Champion’s fifth double win, his 14th of this fantastic season for the Althea Racing rider who also helped Ducati regain the World Superbike manufacturers’ title.

Checa did not have a good start and found himself trailing behind Jonathan Rea, Eugene Laverty, Leon Camier with Noriyuki Haga getting into the mix. Rea started distancing himself from the field with Laverty chasing him.
The Althea rider moved into fourth and then overtook Camier on lap 2 and on the following lap was right behind the Yamaha rider, Checa’s first passing attempt went wide and he found himself down in sixth and having to cut through the field again.

On the sixth lap Rea made a slight error which allowed Laverty to reach him and the pass him at the famous Adelaide hairpin on lap seven, while Checa was back in fourth after first passing Haga and then Camier. He then caught Rea on lap 13 overtaking him easily and they both hunted down race leader Laverty, but disaster again struck the Castrol Honda rider who suddenly slowed down suffering a similar technical issue that stopped him at Imola.

Continue reading: Carlos Checa does the double at Magny Cours - Ducati takes manufacturers' championship

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Carlos Checa is the new 2011 World Superbike champion. The Althea Ducati needed just three points to take the title, but he did it in his usual style, by dominating race 1 at Magny Cours and taking his 13th victory of the season.

When the lights went out in race 1 pole sitter Jonathan Red looked like he got a jump start which caused him to wheel back slightly and then take off late letting Eugene Laverty, Leon Camier and Carlos Checa get ahead of him, while further back in the field Pedercini’s Mark Aitchison had a horrific highside, that left him limping off track.

While Laverty and Camier took off distancing themsevlves from the rest of the field, Checa was embroiled in a fierce battle with Tom Sykes, after managing to shake off the Englishman he began hunting down the Aprilia and Yamaha riders. Camier began to lose contact with a faster Laverty, when Checa caught him and attempted his first pass he hit Camier’s rear wheel, however at the Adelaide turn he made his pass stick and was second.

Continue reading: Carlos Checa wins race 1 at Magny Cours and is the new 2011 World Champion

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Building on last week’s Superbike race 1 win at Imola, Jonathan Rea grabbed his first pole position of the season at Magny Cours, however all the attention will be focused on Carlos Checa - if heaven forbid, nothing catastrophic happens - who will take the championship title, the first of his long career.

Here’s what some of the riders had to say after today’s very tight Superpole:

Jonathan Rea – 1st

It was a strong lap but we’ve had a good base for most of the weekend and we knew we had to make an extra step to make Sunday more comfortable. The guys gave me a great bike in free practice this afternoon and transformed some things with the balance of the bike, which gave me more confidence to push. So I kind of expected to be somewhere near the front but I didn’t expect the lap time to be that fast. We had a good Superpole 1 and that freed us up with the qualifiers for Superpole 2 and 3, so everything worked out perfectly. The big step we made in free practice means I can be quite consistent on my preferred race tyre, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow now. The team did a great job today, so I’d like to thank everyone.

Continue reading: WSBK riders recap Superpole at Magny Cours (w/ highlight video)

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Lap times were so tight in this afternoon’s World Superbike Superpole session at Magny Cours that many riders had to use their qualifying tires in the SP1 and to get the axe at the end of the session were Jakub Smrz, Michel Fabrizio, Mark Aitchison and Ayrton Badovini.

The situation in SP2 was even more tense. Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa almost did not making the cut and both were forced to use up their last available qualifying tire to make it through to the final session and they both lucky that none of the riders behind them on the timesheets were able to improve their lap times. Out after SP2 were Nori Haga, Joan Lascorz, Maxime Berger and Troy Corser.

Of the eight riders who made it into the SP3, only two still had a qualifying tire and that was Eugene Laverty and Jonathan Rea. Laverty broke the circuit record with his 1′37.600, but less than a minute later Rea blasted out a 1.37.940 that pushed the Yamaha rider into second.

Continue reading: Jonathan Rea grabs the pole at Magny Cours

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This morning’s QP2 at Magny Cours was warm and sunny and it was Marco Melandri who grabbed the provisional pole in QP2 after struggling all of yesterday trying to learn the French track

The Italian, who is pondering over offers from Aprilia (they want him in team Pata) and BMW, grabbed the top of the charts with his last flying lap of 1.38.179 demoting the Effenbert Liberty Ducati duo Sylvain Guintoli (on his spare bike) and Jakub Smrz to 2nd and 3rd.

Ayrton Badovini impressed with his BMW Italia by taking fourth, outpacing the factory BMW team of Leon Haslam and Troy Corser who were fifth and sixth respectively. Noriyuki Haga came in seventh with Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes right on his tail.

Soon-to-be 2011 World Superbike champion Carlos Checa rounded out the top ten, unable to improve his lap times.

Not making the cut to this afternoon’s Superpole will be only two riders, Javier Fores and Roberto Rolfo as the grid is down to only eighteen riders with Max Biaggi and Chris Vermeulen still recovering from their injuries and Castrol Honda’s Ruben Xaus who has been forced out of this round after crashing out at 210km during yesterday’s FP1, the doctors deemed that the muscle damage to his neck was to severe for him to race.

Continue reading: Marco Melandri tops the charts in QP2 at Magny Cours

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It was a hot and a electrifying World Superbike first qualifying practice this afternoon at Magny Cours and it was a super tight session that saw Carlos Checa once again top the timesheets with a best lap of 1.39.651, followed by Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty adrift by a mere 0.012s and home boy Sylvain Guintoli in third, just 0.089s from his fellow Ducati rider.

Tom Sykes had another strong session finishing in fourth after heading the timesheets in the final minutes while
Guintoli’s teammate grabbed the fifth best time. Jonathan Rea made a big jump forward to take sixth. While BMW’s Leon Haslam and Troy Corser were 7th and 9th respectively, with Noriyuki Haga in the middle of the two , outpacing factory Aprilia rider Leon Camier, who could manage only a lowly 16th.

Joan Lascorz rounded out the top ten, while World Superbike rookies Maxime Berger and Mark Aitchison with their 11th and 12th, got the better not only of Camier, but also of high profile Italian riders like Marco Melandri and Michel Fabrizio who were only 14th and 15th.

Continue reading: Carlos Checa on provisional pole at Magny Cours

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If you thought that Carlos Checa was going to take it easy this weekend as he’s on the verge of taking the championship title - he needs just three little points - think again. The Althea Ducati rider headed the top of the timesheet at the French track of Magny-Cours during this morning’s first free practice, but he had to work for it as lap times were tight.

Checa had lead most of the session but with only six minutes left Leon Haslam put in flying lap to grab the top of the timesheets, but the Spaniard wasn’t having any as he then posted at 1.39.013 that was enough to keep Tom Sykes at bay who had climbed up the charts right behind him to take second, while Troy Corser bumped team mate Haslam into fourth as he took the the third spot.

Jakub Smrz finished in 5th, followed by Michel Fabrizio who suffered a crash at turn 7 during the one hour practice session. Eugene Laverty was 7th with Noriyuki Haga hot on his tail in 8th. Joan Lascorz and Sylvain Guintoli rounded out the top ten.

Continue reading: WSBK Magny Cours: Carlos Checa gets a head start

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Max Biaggi will be missing the penultimate round of the World Superbike championship this weekend at Magny Cours, as his fractured metatarsus has yet to heal sufficiently in order to allow him to race.

Biaggi was injured during free practice at Nurburgring and was forced to miss the Imola round thus officially giving Carlos Checa free reign in the fight for the championship title.

“I would have liked to have been at Magny Cours, just as I wanted to race at Imola,” said the Aprilia Alitalia rider. The fact that I was at the track on Thursday to try any possible solution confirms that, even if, unfortunately, I had to give in to the medical evidence. And the same thing happened for Magny Cours, a round which is just too close to hope for recovery. Unfortunately this injury requires a recovery time which does not reconcile with my desires. Now I’ll do my best to go through the recovery process and to end this season at the Portimao round”.

With the Italian to miss this further round, Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty has the chance to take third place in the standings, as he’s currently 25 points from Biaggi.

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Our French cousin Haga (no relation to NitroNori) from Motosblog.fr was at last week’s final round of the World Superbike Championship at Magny-Cours and got a chance in the open and friendly paddock to take these wonderful pics while the various pit crews were setting up the bikes.

Enjoy the gallery.

Alstare Suzuki:

Continue reading: Gallery of Pics inside the WSBK Paddock at Magny-Cours

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