Bayliss gets one hand on the trophy.

Troy Bayliss has moved to within striking distance of the World Superbike title after extending his championship lead to 101 points with a victory in the first race at Donington Park.

Although it was a day of mixed fortunes for the Aussie rider with a win in the first race being followed by a heavy fall in the second, Bayliss nonetheless heads to Vallelunga with a three-figure margin over Troy Corser, giving him a chance to wrap up the title in Italy.

The first race was a particular delight for Bayliss as he overhauled Tom Sykes' four second aggregate lead to edge out the wild-card rider by just over a second.

"I'm really happy to have finally taken a win at Donington today after all the years that I've been coming here," he mused.

However, Bayliss' hopes of making it a double win ended on lap 12 of the second race when he lost the back-end of his Ducati coming under Starkey's Bridge. Prompted by the slippery conditions, Bayliss was sent across the track, onto the gravel trap and into retirement.

Emerging completely unscathed from the accident, Bayliss is nonetheless pleased to leave the UK with his hands firmly clasped on the winning trophy.

"Then in Race 2 I was feeling equally good at the start, even though the rain was so heavy I almost thought they might cancel it a couple of laps in. But conditions improved and I felt comfortable so at a certain point, when it looked like Kiyo might have been starting to have a bit of trouble, I thought I could push bit harder and try to catch him.

"Unfortunately though I lost the back at a certain point and came off at a pretty fast speed, though luckily I haven't hurt myself. We've improved on our points lead overall and we leave here with an advantage of 101 points over Corser and 105 over Neukirchner which was our aim for this round so we're all very happy with that."