CARL Fogarty lost vital ground in his pursuit of a third World Superbike crown after Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight and Ducati's Troy Corser dominated round six at Misano.

Slight romped to a double victory, winning two races in a day for the first time in his career, and Corser claimed two second places as the pair opened up a gap at the top of the championship.

Kawasaki racer Neil Hodgson also produced one of his more consistent displays of the season to claim two top-10 finishes.

Blackburn ace Fogarty had got off to a flying start, leading the pack in the second race, before Corser took over at the front on lap three.

The Australian was tailed by Slight for 15 laps before the Honda ace made his move with six laps to go to ensure a memorable victory. Corser took second, with Fogarty third ahead of Honda's Colin Edwards, who just pipped Kawasaki's Akira Yanagawa on the last lap to claim fourth.

Fogarty, racing on the track where his Ducati team carry out their testing, could only muster a fourth place finish in race one after Slight grabbed the lead from pole position man Corser on lap six.

The 32-year-old Kiwi opened up a four second lead before eventually crossing the line less than a second ahead of Corser, with Edwards taking third ahead of Fogarty.

Meanwhile, Hodgson enjoyed one of his best weekends of the season so far after climbing back from 11th at the end of the first lap to finish seventh in race one.

And he followed that up with an 8th place finish in race two, after fighting his way through the field, to cement his 10th place in the championship.

"I was really happy with my seventh place especially after my troubles in practice," said the 24-year-old.

First race result: 1 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 39m 54.406s, 2 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 39m 55.126s, 3 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 39m 56.710s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 39m 59.474s, 5 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 40m 04.679s, 6 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 40m 22.287s, 7 Neil Hodgson, GB (Kawasaki) 40m 26.053s, 8 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 40m 35.305s, 9 Andy Meklau, Austria (Ducati) 40m 57.826s, 10 Udo Mark, Germany (Suzuki) 41m 00.347s.

Second race result: 1 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 39m 49.893s, 2 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 39m 50.951s, 3 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 39m 53.162s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 40m 03.343s, 5 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 40m 03.440s, 6 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 40m 08.782s, 7 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Ducati) 40m 28.483s, 8 Neil Hodgson, GB (Kawasaki) 40m 28.594s, 9 Andy Meklau, Austria (Ducati) 40m 29.997s, 10 Igor Jerman, Slovenia (Kawasaki) 40m 55.840s.

Championship points after six of 13 rounds: 1 Corser 200, 2 Slight 194, 3 Edwards 167, 4 Fogarty 163, 5 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 144, 6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 143, 7 Yanagawa 101, 8 Whitham 73, 9 Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki) 71, 10 Hodgson 67.

Manufacturers points: 1 Ducati 248, 2 Honda 233, 3 Yamaha 165, 4 Kawasaki 125, 5 Suzuki 103.

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