Italian Max Biaggi has continued his imperious run of form with his fourth double win of the year in the Misano leg of the Superbike World Championship on Sunday, but not before Australian Troy Corser gave him a real scare in race one.

BMW Motorrad factory rider Corser, who had earlier secured his 43rd WSBK pole position in fine style, led race one for the opening 16 laps before Biaggi clawed to the front on his Aprilia.

Spain’s Carlos Checa (Ducati) also slipped by Corser a short time later, setting the scene for a gripping final six laps.

Biaggi just couldn’t be broken though, and he managed to absorb the assault to win his seventh race of the year, which he increased to eight a few hours later with a crushing victory over Leon Haslam (Suzuki) and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati).

“In such a tough and well balanced championship, all of the victories are earned with hard work and sweat,” said Biaggi. “In race two, to be honest, maybe I pushed the envelope a bit, maybe even risking too much. But on the other hand, without risk there is no gain!

“Victories like this never happen by chance, and these ones in particular are well deserved by a large family which works together toward a common goal.”

A spectacular run of six wins out of the last eight races now has Biaggi a 37-point (307 to 270) championship lead over Haslam, with Checa a distant third on 172.

Biaggi now has eight wins out of 16 races in 2010, which is exactly the same scorecard that Ben Spies had at the same juncture in 2009. The American went onto win the championship ahead of Noriyuki Haga.

Corser (149pts) jumped a spot to sixth at Misano, but it could have been better had he not missed a gear on the final lap and run off the circuit. He was running in the top five until that point, but had to settle for 10th.

However, the silver lining was that Misano now goes down as the best performance by Corser’s BMW factory team, which included the first ever pole position on Saturday and the Wollongong rider’s third place in race one – his 130th World Superbike podium.

“I am really happy with the way this weekend has gone,” said Corser. “But at the same time I am also a little disappointed because I felt we had the pace to win both races today. In the first race I felt comfortable leading the race, and had it not been for a mistake towards the end of the race I think I would have finished second or even first.

“It was just a case of trying a little too hard. In race two we made some slight changes to the set-up to give more grip to the rear wheel, but this meant we lost some feeling from the front tyre and this affected the handling of the bike.

“Unfortunately when I hit a false neutral on the down-change I missed my brake point, forcing me into the gravel.”

It was another hapless outing for Sunshine Coast’s Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki), who had earmarked Misano – a circuit where he has always been fast – as the place to begin his renaissance after a horror run with injury.

But it wasn’t to be with distant 16-15 finishes, while Newcastle’s Broc Parkes (Honda) was excluded from race one before completing the second in 17th.

Checa (2-5) was second overall at Misano ahead of Fabrizio (4-3) and Haslam (10-2), the latter changing both his bike and rear tyre for race two in an effort to halt Biaggi’s surge.

Eugene Laverty got the better of his World Supersport peers at Misano and moved back into the lead in the championship lead at the expense of Kenan Sofuoglu, who was third. Joan Lascorz’s Kawasaki was sandwiched between two Hondas in second. Pole man Michele Pirro (Honda) crashed out of contention early on.

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