Bayliss celebrates title with win

Eurosport - Mon, 06 Oct 08:05:00 2008

Troy Bayliss celebrated his World Superbike championship with a victory in race two at Magny-Cours.

Bayliss had already sealed the title after finishing third behind winner Noriyuki Haga in race one.

The 39-year-old Australian, who retires at the end of the season, rode his Xerox Ducati to a controlled podium finish in the first race.

Knowing third place would guarantee him the title, Bayliss produced an uncharacteristically restrained race before exploding into life at the chequered flag.

There was evident relief for Ducati, after Bayliss had failed to wrap up the championship as expected in the last round at Vallelunga - finishing sixth and 16th to keep Haga and Corser in with a mathematical chance of overhauling him.

The celebrations were kept to a minimum, however, prior to the end of race two in which Bayliss just edged Haga for the win after making his attack on the penultimate lap.

Troy Corser took the final place on the podium and trails Haga in the race for second place overall after to his Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate's race one victory.

"It was a great race in the end, we made one change and put on a harder front tyre for the second race," Bayliss said.

"The grip was similar but more consistent during the race. I was struggling on the exits to the tight corner, losing a bit to Nori, but it's always like this.

"You lose some and gain some. I gave it my all, there wasn't much to lose, I put three good laps together at the end and it was a great win."

Andrew Pitt claimed a second world championship for Australia, winning the World Supersport title.

Pitt won the Magny-Cours race while his Ten Kate Honda team-mate and closest rival Jonathan Rea could do no better than 10th after being taken out by Robbin Harms.