After qualifying on pole, the WSBK legend battled tooth and nail with four-cylinder rivals Max Neukirchner,
Noriyuki Haga and
Yukio Kagayama during a thrilling opening race - in which Bayliss crossed the line in third, but just 0.672secs from victory!
"I knew today's races would be hard and that proved to be the case," reflected Troy. "In race one I felt the bike was missing a couple of things and struggling on the long corners but in the end I was happy to take a third place.
"My compliments to Max who takes his first Superbike win, both him and Nori rode a great race and there was nothing I could do to get past them.
"I was just missing a little bit of feel there, also I was maybe missing a little bit of jump in the gearing out of the slow corners but I can't take it away from these guys, and in the end I was happy to take third position and increase my points lead," he added.
With nearest championship rival
Carlos Checa finishing just eighth in race one, Bayliss increased his lead to a massive 78 points heading into race two - when a terminal oil leak on his 1098R, while holding a close third position, looked set to dent that margin.
However, Checa also failed to finish - crashing out on lap ten of 18 - allowing Bayliss to keep his points lead intact, although race two winner Haga is now up to third in the standings.
"Race two? Let's just say I'm happy to leave Monza with a bigger points lead than I had when I arrived," said Troy, who had earlier admitted he was desperate to win race two.
Meanwhile, team-mate
Michel Fabrizio finished ninth and fifth during his first home race as a factory Ducati rider.
"I'm very happy at the end of the day," he declared. "There was some real racing going on out there today, and I had to fight hard to make up the places that I did. I needed to take points away this weekend and I did that, and in front of my home crowd too, so I can say that I'm pretty satisfied really."
