With two rounds (four races) of the championship remaining, Bayliss holds a 29-point lead over American Colin Edwards who won both races in Germany today. The two archrivals have been the dominating force in this year’s championship and look set to take their title fight down to the wire.

The German round of the series saw the SWC competitors return to the track after the month long ‘Summer’ break and for many riders, they had not been on their race bikes in that time, including Bayliss.

The Australian qualified his Infostrada Ducati 998F-02 with the sixth fastest time, starting each race from the second row of the grid. He made two exceptionally good starts, being third off the line in race one and second in race two. The opening race saw him challenging British rider Neil Hodgson (HM Plant Ducati) until he made his way past on lap 23 of the tight and demanding circuit. He then gave chase to Edwards, but the American had already built a sizable lead that could not be overhauled.

The start of race two saw Bayliss charge his way through to second off the grid behind Edwards. The pair were able to ease away from the field, but rising track temperatures made tyre choices difficult, with Bayliss unable to push harder with the tyre choice that he had made.

“It turned out to be not a bad weekend, considering how things have gone,” said Bayliss. “I guess after the month long break I was a bit rusty as I hadn’t been on the bike at all in that time and it just took us some additional time to get things up to speed. In the end I think my weekend actually started today.”

“We tried a few different things with the bike on Friday and Saturday, but did not use the front tyre that I normally would for flat smooth circuits like this until this morning’s warm up session,” added Bayliss. “I did my fastest times of the weekend today, but we were just a step behind. That tyre worked well in the first race, but the track temperature went up by about 8 degrees and I guess we should have gone up one harder compound in the front, as it was too soft for the conditions. As it was I don’t think anybody was going to beat Colin today. He has been fast all weekend, so I’m just happy that I can leave here in a better position than what I was at the same time last year.”

Bayliss heads to the penultimate round of this years championship at the Dutch Assen circuit with a total of 481 points to the 452 accumulated by Edwards. It was at Assen last year where Bayliss secured his first World Superbike crown after taking victory in both races. He arrives at the famous Dutch circuit in a similar situation as he was last year and will be looking for the same result.

“Now we go to Assen (next weekend) and it’s a normally a good place for Ducati. After this weekend I am now ready for it. I’ll be going there with five more points than I did last year over Colin, so that’s something.”