Troy Bayliss may not have won a race at Valencia on Sunday, but the Australian still increased his 2008 W𒐪orld Superbike Championship lead from 27 to 48 points - helped partly by the last turn clash between race leaders Max Neukirchner and Carlos Checa.

"I was very happy with my results today, although it was a bit of a strange weekend, having had some problems with the bike in practice and qua🐼lꦉifying," reflected Troy.

It was indeed something of a difficult weekend for Bayliss, partly due to his absence from the recent Valen🏅cia test. The Ducati Xerox rider lost🌌 third position to satellite 1098 rider Lorenzo Lanzi on the final lap of race one - a move that handed Lanzi a shock victory after the incident ahead.

"My congratulations go to Lorenzo [Lanᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚzi], I'm very happy for him to have taken the win and he really deserved it," said Troy sportingly. "I thought I was going to finish in fourth and couldn't believe what then happened with Neukirchner and Checa on the last lap but that's racing I guess and gave me a second place finish."

Bayliss repeated his runner-up position in race two, although this time with🐼out any accidents ahead of him, and was a🎀lso the top Ducati rider.

"In race two I had a good battle with [race winner] Nori," recalled Troy. "At one point I was in a position to fight for the win but in𒉰 the end Haga was in control. Anyway, I was hoping for good points as points make prizes and so we move on to the next round in a strong position."

Fonsi Nieto remains Bayliss' nearest title rival, but the Spaniard had a poor weekend at Valencia - finishin✨g fourth and tenth.

Bayl🐽iss' team-mate Michel Fabrizio was one of the many fallers in ra💝ce one, then collected 13th position in race two.

"In race one I didn't make the best start and then, although I was able to move up several places quite easily, unfortu♏nately in trying to pass Biaggi, I just pushed too hard and went down," explained the Italian.

"I already knew that this track is one of those places where, if you don't get a good start, it's very hard to catch up and in race two I demonstrated this. Anyway next week we go to test in Monza and then we have the next round𒈔 in Assen, a track I really enjoy and have done well at in the past, so we'll carry on working hard and hopefully do better in Holland," he added.

Fabrizi💝o sits tenth in th𝔉e world championship, after three of the 14 rounds, and is 91 points behind Bayliss.