Moto GP Japan: Jorge Lorenzo wins to keep title fight alive

The Yamaha rider, who is hunting his third crown in grand prix racing's top division, sprinted into the first corner from pole position and was never headed.

Both Marquez and Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa put Lorenzo under extreme pressure during the middle stages of the race, but with Lorenzo's bike better off the Motegi corners, he was able to hold them at bay.

After preserving his soft-compound tyres and brakes during that crucial phase of the race, Lorenzo was able to stretch away to his 30th career win - and his seventh of the season.

Lorenzo's victory cut his points deficit to Marquez - who finished second - to 13 points with 25 up for grabs at the Valencia finale.

Dani Pedrosa, who was also in title contention at the start of the race, was third and is now out of the championship hunt.

Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl made it four Hondas in the top five positions, the Gresini rider overtaking LCR's German rider under acceleration out of the final corner at one-third distance.

Valentino Rossi sprinted up to second at the start, but ran wide at Turn 11 on the second lap, dropping behind Marquez and Pedrosa, dropping to fourth.

He then repeated the error at the same corner next time round, but this time made it all the way to the gravel and rejoined 11th. He recovered to sixth by the finish.

Cal Crutchlow was Tech 3 Yamaha's best finisher in seventh, the Briton recovering from a dismal qualifying that left him 11th on the grid. He overtook team-mate and countryman Bradley Smith around the midway point.

Nicky Hayden - who started third - beat Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso to ninth spot.

Colin Edwards was the best CRT rider, the Forward Racing FTR-Kawasaki benefitting when Aleix Espargaro - who had run as high as fifth overall on the opening lap - crashed.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                42m34.291s
 2.  Marc Marquez      Honda                    +3.188s
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    +4.592s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           +19.755s
 5.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               +22.810s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  +24.637s
 7.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha           +27.496s
 8.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           +30.969s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  +37.100s
10.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  +42.944s
11.  Katsuyuki NakasugaYamaha                  +53.345s
12.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  +1m03.213s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         +1m06.840s
14.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         +1m08.218s
15.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         +1m18.240s
16.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m19.108s
17.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m21.174s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        +1m30.546s
19.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           +2m23.358s
20.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki      +1 lap
21.  Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia               +1 lap
22.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda         +1 lap

Retirements:

     Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia            15 laps
     Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia           2 laps
     Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW            2 laps