World Champion in the 2002 season, Fabien Foret is one of the most experienced riders in the WSS championship, but in the last year or so racing life got particularly hard for the mercurial Foret.

A big crash at Brno last year threatened more than Fabien's career for a time, but hard work in rehab and deep reserves of self-belief brought Fabien back to top level action.

It cannot have been easy for ‘Fab' to watch his hungry young team-mate Cal Crutchlow arrive in WSS in 2009, start well and then just get better and better as Foret struggled for consistency at key times.

But it is an indication of just how well Fabien and his side of the garage have progressed in recent rounds that he scored another victory at Brno, and that his fifth place in the Nürburgring event was seen as a disappointing result. A similar race finish at the start of the year would have been seen in a more pleasing light, but podiums every week seem to be the clear aim once more.

Said Foret of his German result, "It could be worse, when you get some rain drops it's not my ideal racing conditions. As soon as the rain stopped I pushed harder and I had a good pace. I tried to catch Roccoli but I was making a couple of mistakes with a couple of laps to go so held on for the end. I gained a place in the championship so we'll see what happens at the next race."

Foret is now fifth in the championship, and was a race winner at Brno; an emotional event given that was the site of his nasty crash in 2008. Foret's 12 career wins in this category make him the third most successful WSS rider ever, and one more win this year would take him to the same total shared by Sebastien Charpentier and Kenan Sofuoglu.

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