Veteran Australian Troy Bayliss won both races at Phillip Island to continue his fine start to his final World Superbike season.

Bayliss now leads the standings by 37 points after his victories in front of a 65,400 crowd.

But it was a disastrous weekend for Max Biaggi who started from 16th on the grid and then had two crashes in two races, the second of which left him nursing a broken wrist.

RACE ONE:

The two-time world champion, 38, led away from the start on his Ducati and pulled away at a rate of knots to beat his countryman Troy Corser by 4.221 seconds at the flag and increase his championship lead from two points to 17.

The race was stopped on the opening lap following a startline incident for Ducati rider Michel Fabrizio.

Starting third, the Italian stalled and was clipped on his left side by Ten Kate Honda rider Kenan Sofuoglu, unsettling him slightly before tail-ender Vittorio Iannuzzo clobbered him from behind.

Red flags were despatched as the field reached Lukei Heights. Carlos Checa backed off, but DF Honda's Russell Holland did not, sending the Spaniard tumbling and forcing the third Ten Kate bike of Ryuichi Kiyonari to take in some serious grass-tracking in avoidance.

On the re-start, which was taken by all but Iannuzzo, it was Bayliss leading away from the Yamaha Motor Italia pair of Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga.

But neither could mount a challenge to the Ducati man, who built a one-second lead by lap four and continued to pull away to his 43rd career victory while a six-bike battle for second ensued.

Staggeringly, fancied runners Corser, Haga, Max Neukirchner and Fonsi Nieto were joined by first lap victims Fabrizio and Checa as well as Sterilgarda Ducati rider Biaggi - who was up to fourth by lap eight from a lowly 16th place on the grid.

The veteran Italian quickly despatched Checa's Ten Kate Honda - ironically at the Honda corner - on lap ten and then put a similar move on Corser for at MG a lap later before clearing off into the distance.

Just when the rest thought they had seen the last of the Sterilgarda bikes, Biaggi's team-mate Ruben Xaus suddenly appeared from nowhere and cut past them all with consummate ease in the space of two laps to take third on the 13th tour.

Suddenly though, Xaus found himself in second on lap 16 as Biaggi crashed out of the exiting MG corner, having taken 1.5 seconds out of Bayliss' lead in the previous five laps.

The Spaniard found himself under extreme pressure from Fabrizio and Corser. And it was pressure that told too.

After a lairy moment through Doohan corner on lap 18 that seemed to point to rear-tyre issues, Corser - who was unseated as a result - knuckled down to business and streaked past both on the back straight with three laps to go.

Fabrizio completed the podium with Xaus fourth and Alstare Suzuki rider Nieto winning an all-Spanish battle with Checa for fifth a handful of seconds back.

Neukirchner's Alstare bike and Haga were next up, with the Japanese rider's eighth place unbelievably marking his best result of what has been a dismal season so far.

British Superbike champion Kiyonari scored his first WSBK points in ninth while Roberto Rolfo took the Altea Honda's best championship finish in tenth.

It was a bad race for Jakub Smrz, who crashed his Guandalini Ducati after qualifying an impressive fifth, while both PSG-1 Kawasakis of Makoto Tamada and Regis Laconi were forced out with mechanical problems at mid-distance

RACE TWO:

Bayliss made it three wins from four races in 2008 as he completed a wonderful double victory at his home event.

The 38-year-old Ducati rider was less convincing than in the earlier encounter, but assumed the lead of the race when Corser crashed out on lap five and pulled away to a comfortable second victory.

"It's something you dream of, to have a double win on your last time here," said Bayliss, who also completed a home double in 2002.

"I knew this weekend was going to be very difficult, everybody's riding well and there's a lot of good bikes out there, but I have a great team behind me and I'm happy with the result.

"The times were a little bit slower in race 2 but I felt better on the bike, it was more consistent throughout and a pleasure to ride."

Bayliss led away from the start, but was passed for the lead by Alstare Suzuki rider Fonsi Nieto heading into the Doohan corner on the second lap.

Both were taken totally by surprise into Honda corner though - as was Haga - as the Japanese rider's team-mate Corser zoomed by all three to steal the top spot later on the same tour.

Corser though, who was surpassing Frankie Chili as the most experienced rider in World Superbike history on what was his 279th start, was to have all his good work undone though as he, Fabrizio, Smrz and Laconi were all slapped with ride-through penalties for jump-starts.

Corser would never get the chance to take his ride-through. He crashed out at Siberia on lap five, handing Bayliss an easy route to his 44th career victory and a 27-point championship lead over Nieto.

Behind him, Biaggi again made great progress up from 16th on the grid and was pressuring Nieto hard for second place as the pair crossed the line for the seventh time.

The battle was to end there and then though as the four-time 250cc world champion lost the rear-end of his Sterilgarda Ducati on the entry to Doohan and was thrown off at an extreme velocity while his bike flipped end over end three times.

Biaggi's misfortune was more than just the loss of 16 points though, as he was quickly diagnosed with a broken wrist following checks at the track's medical centre.

The order was, at that stage of the race, quite spaced out, but it certainly did not stay that way as a battle for Spanish pride ensued between Nieto, Biaggi's team-mate Xaus and Ten Kate Honda rider Checa.

Checa eventually came out on top of the battle as he made a decisive move on Nieto into Doohan on lap 13, and closed in to within 1.272 seconds of Bayliss by the flag as the Australian backed off in the closing stages.

Nieto eventually completed the podium, although his battle with Xaus raged all the way to the flag.

The battle of the race came for fifth place as just half a second separated five bikes at the finish. Coming out on top was Neukirchner on the second Alstare bike, while Kiyonari had easily the best race of the WSBK career in sixth for Ten Kate.

Haga came home seventh for his best result of the season while Gregorio Lavilla continued his and Paul Bird Honda's re-adaptation to the world championship in eighth - just missing out on Haga's position as the pair finished side-by-side.

Completing the top ten were Holland and Karl Muggeridge, who gave the DF Honda team their first double top-ten finish since 2004. Muggeridge got his place by passing Sofuoglu on on the final lap.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport