CARL Fogarty blew hot and cold in the third round of the World Superbike Championship at Donington Park.

But he still managed to stretch his championship lead to 23 points over Ducati team-mate Troy Corser after claiming a race win and a second place in front of 70,000 adoring fans.

Fogarty took six laps to shake off pole position man Pier-Francesco Chili before heading for victory in the opening race.

Defending champion Fogarty came under pressure in the closing stages from Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight who took runner-up place, three seconds behind the Briton.

But the temperature of the track on the Sunday was markedly different to the heat of the practice days and Fogarty was unsure about his choice of tyre.

And he opted for a harder compound in the second race, which proved costly as Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards took advantage.

The American waited until the halfway stage in the 25-lap second race before taking the lead.

Fogarty tried without success to stay with the 750cc Honda rider as Edwards crossed the line with a comfortable four-second advantage.

"The temperature on Sunday was different to the other days and this had a major influence on the choice of tyres.

"In race two I opted for a harder tyre and maybe it wasn't the right choice. "This weekend has been a tough one because of the different temperatures.

"I also had a few problems with the electric gear change system and I finished race one by manual.

"Because of that I was not too worried about coming second in the following race.

"I haven't used it for a long time and my hand is really tired. It was like being in an aeroplane cockpit. I was flicking so many switches to try and get fire out of the bike.

First race result: 1 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 39m 19.856s, 2 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 39m 23.286s, 3 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 39m 36.339s, 4 Chris Walker, GB (Kawasaki) 39m 40.798s, 5 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 39m 41.280s, 6 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 39m 44.343s, 7 John Reynolds, GB (Ducati) 39m 46.948s, 8 Steve Hislop, GB (Kawasaki) 39m 48.834s, 9 Sean Emmett, GB (Ducati) 39m 54.818s, 10 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 39m 57.613s. Second race result: 1 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 39m 25.558s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 39m 29.771s, 3 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 39m 36.114s, 4 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 39m 39.815s, 5 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 39m 48.051s, 6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 39m 53.498s, 7 John Reynolds, GB (Ducati) 39m 59.091s, 8 Doriano Romboni, Italy (Ducati) 39m 59.226s, 9 Steve Hislop, GB (Kawasaki) 40m 00.070s, 10 Niall Mackenzie, GB (Yamaha) 40m 14.676s.

Championship points after three of 13 rounds: 1 Fogarty 135, 2 Corser 112, 3 Edwards 97, 4 Slight 82, 5 Yanagawa 66, 6 Haga 50, 7 Romboni 44, 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 32, 9 Chili 31, 10 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) and Reynolds 18.

Manufacturers points: 1 Ducati 145, 2 Honda 113, 3 Kawasaki 68, 4 Yamaha 53, 5 Suzuki 44, 6 Aprilia 9.

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