Zoom Troy Bayliss

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) bounced back to the winner's podium after a gap of eight races with a dominant double victory at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic.

The points' leader took his seventh and eighth wins of the season in front of 63,000 spectators, and this was the fifteenth time the Australian has picked up the ‘double'.

The ninth round of the season also saw great performances by his team-mate Michel Fabrizio, twice on the podium, and by Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), third in race 2, while Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) was also in good form in the two races.

Race 1
After starting from pole, Bayliss took the lead on lap 12 and then powered to the chequered flag after setting the fastest lap of the race three from the end.

Second place went to Corser after a great race in which he kept Bayliss under pressure until the final stages. The final podium slot went to Fabrizio, who passed Biaggi on the last lap after an exciting duel with his fellow Italian. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate) brought the first Honda home, the Japanese rider confirming his excellent Superpole performance with fifth place.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) managed to salvage a good result with sixth place after a difficult two days, finishing ahead of two other riders fighting for the title, Max Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) and Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda). Checa's team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu did well to finish in tenth, while rookie Niccolò Canepa (Ducati Xerox) notched up his first Superbike points.

Troy Bayliss: “It's been a while since I won and Brno has been up and down for me in the past so I'm happy to take a win. I was struggling a bit at the start to stay with everyone, but my bike just didn't get any worse and I continually got to grips with it and got a better feel throughout the race and felt very at ease towards the end.”

Troy Corser: “I'm reasonably happy, the bike was working well for the first half of the race and then the rear tyre just dropped a little bit and I lost a few tenths. When Troy came past I tried to go with him but he did seem to have a bit more grip coming out of the corners, other than that we were pretty even. I pushed as hard as I could to try and stay with him, but didn't want to throw away second like I did in America.”