Australia's Troy Bayliss clinched his third World Superbike Championship crown with a podium finish in the first of two races in the French round at Magny-Cours last night.

Baylis, 39, established an unassailable championship points lead when he rode a conservative race to finish third on his Ducati behind Yamaha's race winner Nori Haga who is second in the series.

Baylis had hoped to clinch the title in last month's round at Italy's Vallelunga circuit but crashed out in the second race.

The 14-round series finishes in Portugal on November 2. Bayliss, from Taree in NSW, won his previous champiopnships in 2001 and 2006, also for Ducati.

He also competed for the Italian maker in MotoGP.

''I really wanted to win on three different kinds of bikes and I had a lot of pressure and a lot of things on my mind the whole year,'' Bayliss said.

He is headed for retirement from bikes to try for a possible tilt at car racing in Australia.

"That was one to tick off the list so finally that's done and now I can go out and have a bit of fun and relax a bit more and I'm really glad to get that behind me to tell you the truth.'' AAP