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Bayliss heads to Phillip Island on top

Australian Troy Bayliss has set himself up for a spectacular Phillip Island swansong next weekend after a superb start to the 2008 world Superbike season in Qatar on February 23.

Bayliss, who will call it quits at the end of the year, won the opening race at Losail, the maiden victory for Ducati's all-new 1098F08, before a hard-fought fourth place in race two saw him leave Qatar with the championship lead ahead of Italian Max Biaggi (Ducati), Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki), Ruben Xaus (Ducati) and compatriot Troy Corser (Yamaha).

"It's a very good start to the season for the team, exactly what we needed," said Bayliss. "In race one I didn't make the greatest start and so it took me a while to make it to the front of the pack. The last eight laps were a bit of a battle against Max (Biaggi), but I was finally able to get past him and, although I made a couple of small mistakes, I was pretty comfortable and took the win.

"I would have loved to take another podium in race two but it wasn't to be and I come away from this round leading the championship by two points so I can't exactly complain. Now I'm ready to move on to Phillip Island where I hope to have another great weekend."

Bayliss had to slice his way through the field in race one after starting from the second row of the grid, with German Max Neukirchner (Suzuki) leading most of the first half before Biaggi, in his first ride on privateer Ducati machinery, eventually seized control.

However, 38-year-old Bayliss was always in the hunt, and he engineered a perfect passing move on the final lap to defeat Biaggi by 0.396 seconds, with Corser third. Xaus passed Neukirchner with three laps to go to complete the distance in fourth.

It was Bayliss' 42nd world Superbike win and his first at the 5.38km Losail circuit.

In race two, Corser was the early trailblazer before he lost all grip and faded to finish seventh, with the game of nerve then centred on Biaggi, Xaus and Nieto, with Bayliss not far behind.

Nieto finally broke the impasse, winning his maiden world Superbike race after switching from Kawasaki to Suzuki in the off-season. Remarkably, it was Nieto's first win at any level for 15 years, and he also set a new lap record to make it a memorable afternoon for the 29-year-old.

"This is my first race win since Donington in 1993," said Nieto. "Yes, it's been a long, long while! I've worked very hard in this championship and today I reaped the reward of all the hard work. Today my Suzuki Alstare bike was faster than the Ducatis, but I definitely raced with my mind today. I know there are people out there who didn't think I could be a winner, but today I proved them wrong!"

Fittingly, Xaus made it a trifecta for Spain in race two, while Biaggi's third place saw him become the only rider to bag a pair of podium finishes in Qatar. Bayliss and his Italian teammate Michel Fabrizio saw out the top five.

Corser's disappointing result in race two was massively frustrating, especially after he surged to his 41st career pole position the day before.

"We made a tyre change between race one and race two just to be on the same tyres as everyone else," said Corser. "But it wasn't better it was worse. There was just no grip after a while and you can't race when you can't push hard. I'm really disappointed after getting Superpole yesterday, and it was obvious we had the speed to be competitive. That's about all I can say."

Corser's teammate Noriyuki Haga fared even worse in Qatar, labouring to 13th in race two after crashing and re-mounting in the opening 18-lapper.

Meanwhile, former 500cc GP winner Carlos Checa performed well in his world Superbike debut on the underprepared Honda, finishing a highly respectable sixth in race one before an off-track excursion in race two saw him grind his way back into 11th, one spot behind teammate Kenan Sofuoglu.

Aussie Honda teammates Karl Muggeridge and Russell Holland were both out of the points.