Scott Redding’s WorldSBK title ambitions for 2020 took a complete pummelling in race one and the Superpole races at Magny-Cours.

Finishing fifth and fourth while Rea won both meant that the script for Redding was to watch Rea clear off again and see his slim hopes of a championship shock evaporate on the slowly drying track surface.

It was partly this not fully wet track surface, but mostly just Redding’s winning performance, that means the championship fight will indeed go to the final round in Portugal in two week’s time.

“A bit of it was confidence because I don’t have the experience with the rain tyre, also the circuits I was playing catch up from the weekend. Knowing the circuit was not the big problem, it was more my confidence in dealing with the tyre," Redding told bikesportnews.com.

"It is very different, and then I started to get confidence. The bike was more or less the same, I said o the guys to leave it, but we were missing acceleration out of the slow corners.

"It was costing me I would say five tenths or six tenths a lap. I said if you fix this I will win the race. I will have a good chance to do it. They did the best they could and in the first two laps Jonathan was not going so much, so I felt I had the potential. I thought I would try to lead the race and do what I could.

I was also scared about the temperature of the tyre. I do not know he Pirelli when the track is dry and if it last five laps or fifty laps, I have no idea.

"I was trying to stay on the water as much as I could but I saw I was pulling a gap on the other guys but on one side I thought it was good the other side I thought maybe the tyre is just going to disappear in a minute. The bike felt good in those conditions and I also felt good so it is good to finish the weekend on that momentum.”

Redding was demonstrably happy over the line in the final race, and explained that it was not just about his fifth race win of 2020.

“I had a tough week in Barcelona and we struggled a little bit with the bike and this is something where we need to work to, to build the bike. Now if I can come in after a lot of difficult results, where I feel if we can make it but it is not happening, when you do get it – it is more.

Especially in the rain. I struggled all week and a lot of people said that ‘Scott is not so good in the rain, blah, blah, blah,” same old shit – and I just wanted to prove a point.

"If it was full rain then maybe it was a bit different but I felt good in those conditions so I had to maximise the points I could do. I was really happy to win that race. I thought going into it maybe it would be between me and Jonathan with the form he has had maybe he would have something in the pocket for the end but I managed to come out to gain some points back to Estoril. There is still a big points gap, but anything can happen in the last race of the season.”

Rea only needs three points in Portugal to ensure he wins the championship, but Redding put down a marker in race two in France that ensures we not only go to the final round after all, but that he could beat Rea in not just dry conditions – which will be nothing but a confidence boost for 2021.