Francesco Bagnaia fended off a late charge from title rival Jorge Martin to win the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix.
The two-time MotoGP champion sealed his eighth MotoGP Grand Prix win of the season, putting his name alongside legendary riders Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez in achieving this feat.
Bagnaia claimed the lead into Turn 1 from pole-sitter Pedro Acosta and led every single lap.
Martin gained five places from his 11th-place qualification inside the first sector, before making opportunistic moves on Marquez and Bastianini to claim fourth place.
Joan Mir and Alex Marquez both crashed out at the same turn on Lap 1, with Mir getting caught up and having the Gresini bike on the rear of his machine.
Miller rose to fifth after his disastrous qualification before older brother Marquez forged his way through the Australian to regain fifth.
Acosta crashed out of proceedings once again, this time from second place. The rookie tried to recover the bike in the gravel trap, and as he crashed in the final corner, he later rejoined nearly a whole lap down from leader Bagnaia before later retiring the bike.
Marquez caught Binder off guard and made a last-gasp overtake at Turn 5 on Lap 5. With both riders extremely gifted in late braking, Marquez saw an opening and took full advantage.
After Lap 5, Bagnaia had a 1.2s advantage over championship rival Martin, with GP23 rider Marquez a further 1.7s adrift.
Augusto Fernandez crashed out from 19th as both GasGas KTM riders will end the Japanese Grand Prix with zero points.
Bastianini made an opportunistic move on Binder in Turn 9 before the South African cut back on the Ducati’s inside, holding onto fourth place.
He only held on to fourth for one lap longer before the far superior GP24 overtook, with Marquez next in his sights.
On Lap 10, the stewards announced that riders could swap bikes if deemed necessary, with the clouds in the sky suggesting possible rainfall in the latter stages.
Championship leader Martin found three-tenths of a second to reduce the gap to 0.9s, with Bagnaia and the Spaniard lapping significantly quicker than the rest of the field. Both GP24 riders complied consistent lap times in the 1.44s before Martin posted his first 1.45s banker on Lap 13.
Despite qualifying in third place, Maverick Vinales’ race ended in the gravel trap at Turn 6 to cap off a disappointing outing.
Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and the VR46 duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio overtook Miller, as the Australian dropped off of the tail end of his team-mate as the race progressed.
With every Lap that went by, Bagnaia looked very comfortable out front. The Italian produced unmatched consistency, increasing his advantage over Martin to 1.8s as the race entered its final third.
Suddenly, Martin gave the impression that he dropped off in the middle period to preserve his tyres. The Spanish rider slashed Bagnaia’s advantage in half by the start of Lap 21.
Martin found between two and three-tenths of a second in the previous three laps to get back within a second of the Italian. Ducati gave Bagnaia an update from the sidelines, and the calm, collected champion extended his advantage back to 1.6s to take the victory.
Bagnaia reduced the championship deficit to only 10 points in the championship to leader Martin. Once again, the duo shared the podium with Marquez.
GP24 riders Bastianini and Morbidelli finished fourth and fifth, respectively, despite Morbidelli ending his race over 13 seconds adrift of his fellow Ducati riders.
Binder provided KTM with its best finish of sixth, with the VR46 duo of Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio unable to salvage a perfect weekend for Ducati with all its eight bikes finishing in the top eight positions.
Aleix Espargaro got the better of Jack Miller to take ninth, as Johann Zarco delivered a strong 11th place for Honda.
Fabio Quartararo finished in 12th place for Yamaha at a track it isn’t as competitive at, meanwhile Takaaki Nakagami brought home points in his last ever Japanese Grand Prix with his home team.
Luca Marini accumulated 14th for Repsol Honda, as Raul Fernandez and Alex Rins occupied the final two spots in the final classification.
