Race report

MotoGP Japanese GP: Bagnaia slashes Martin's lead with win, Acosta crashes

Italian leads Japanese GP all the way as Martin rides through to second and Acosta falls again

Francesco Bagnaia won Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after leading the race at Motegi from lights to flag, heading home Jorge Martin and thus closing to within 10 points of the Spaniard with four rounds left in the world championship.

Martin’s ride from a lowly 11th on the grid to within just over a second of Bagnaia by the end of the race was a successful damage limitation effort after a difficult weekend aboard his Pramac Ducati.

Polesitter Pedro Acosta (Tech3 KTM) crashed out of the race, just as he had when leading the Saturday sprint. This time the Spaniard was in second place when he tumbled, having already lost the lead to Bagnaia at the start. He was pushing the world champion hard for control of the race when his challenge ended on lap three.

The opening laps were a hectic affair, with several riders gaining and losing positions dramatically from their grid slots. Among these were Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Martin, who had qualified out of position in ninth and 11th respectively. Martin made it into second place as early as lap four, when he slipped past KTM’s Brand Binder.

Another fast starter was Binder’s team-mate Jack Miller, who rocketed from 14th to as high as fifth on lap two before fading again.

Moving in the other direction, just as in the sprint on Saturday, was front-row starter Maverick Vinales. The Aprilia rider found himself ninth on the first lap after contact with Marquez in the first corner. He proceeded to drop further back from there before ultimately falling on lap 13.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

VR46 riders Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi also lost several spots after starting seventh and eighth respectively, before both set about recovery rides.

By lap five, most of this early jockeying was over, Acosta was circulating almost a lap down after his fall and the race had settled into an order.

Bagnaia led Martin by 1.4s at this point, the duo gaping the chasing pack led by Marquez, Binder and Enea Bastianini on the second red factory Ducati.

Binder appeared to be struggling with his race package and was only able to hold off Bastianini until lap 11.

After that move there were no further changes among the top four for the rest of the race. Bagnaia was able to keep Martin out of striking distance with a typical display of race management.

Likewise, Marquez also stayed just out of the threatening Bastianini’s reach, with neither able to do anything about the lead pair.

Late in the race, Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati) demoted Binder to sixth place. The South African just clung on ahead of the recovering VR46 duo of Bezzecchi and di Giannantonio.

Aleix Espargaro salvaged a little joy for Aprilia with his ride to ninth place, leading a tight pack across the line. In his tow were Miller, Johann Zarco (LCR Honda), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Takaaki Nakagami.

LCR rider Nakagami thus finished in the points in his final home race as a full-time MotoGP rider, after being punted out by his team-mate in Saturday's sprint.

Luca Marini snatched two points further points for circuit owner Honda, while Raul Fernandez rounded out the scorers for Trackhouse Aprilia.

MotoGP Japanese GP - Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	24	-				25
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	24	+1.189 1.189	1.189			20
3	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	24	+3.822 3.822	2.633			16
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	24	+4.358 4.358	0.536			13
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	24	+17.940 17.940	13.582			11
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	24	+18.502 18.502	0.562			10
7	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	24	+19.371 19.371	0.869			9
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	24	+20.199 20.199	0.828			8
9	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	24	+30.442 30.442	10.243			7
10	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	24	+31.184 31.184	0.742			6
11	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	24	+31.567 31.567	0.383			5
12	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	24	+32.299 32.299	0.732			4
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	24	+33.003 33.003	0.704			3
14	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	24	+35.974 35.974	2.971			2
15	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	24	+39.321 39.321	3.347			1
16	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	24	+40.839 40.839	1.518
17	R. Gardner Yamaha Factory Racing	87	Yamaha	24	+59.547 59.547	18.708
dnf	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	12	12 laps			Retirement
dnf	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	13 laps			Accident
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	6	18 laps			Accident
dnf	L. Savadori Trackhouse Racing Team	32	Aprilia	1	23 laps			Retirement
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	0	24 laps			Accident
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	0	24 laps			Accident
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