Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia dominated a rain-affected Thai MotoGP race to take victory ahead of championship rival Jorge Martin.
Bagnaia’s victory means he closes the gap to Martin in the riders’ standings down to 17 points, but the Pramac rider still has full control over the fate of the championship.
There was drama before the race even began as Alex Marquez crashed on his sighting lap to the grid, with the Gresini rider forced to start the race from the back of the grid.
Martin wheelied off the starting line but got the jump into Turn 1 to take the initial lead ahead of Bagnaia and Marquez.
Bagnaia was able to pass Martin into Turn 2 after the championship leader went wide, but the Pramac rider recovered and got back in front a corner later.
Fabio Quartararo made a strong start on the Yamaha and was able to move up to fourth ahead of Pedro Acosta, who ran wide and was demoted to seventh.
Quartararo continued to look in control despite being overtaken by the KTM of Brad Binder, but was taken out of the race by an overly ambitious move from Franco Morbidelli.
Martin made another error as he ran out wide for a second time and this time was overtaken by both Bagnaia and Marquez.
Bagnaia continued to hold the pace out front, but Marquez looked the stronger of the two, setting the fastest lap in his bid to chase down the Ducati.
Morbidelli was the fastest on track after serving his long lap penalty to challenge, but a crash put him out of contention, and was followed out of the race by Sprint winner Enea Bastianini a few laps later.
The battle between Bagnaia and Marquez raged on out front, as the Gresini stalked the Ducati around the Buriram circuit.
As Marquez looked to have the pace to challenge Bagnaia, he went down and out of contention, though rejoined the race down in 16th.
The battle towards the end of the race was for the final podium place as Miller, Acosta, Binder and Di Giannantonio were all in contention going onto the final lap.
It would be Bagnaia who took the chequered flag to record a vital win in Buriram to put his championship charge back on track.
Martin took a welcome second, which means he can finish in second place for all of the remaining races and still take the title.
Acosta rounded out the podium in third after winning the final lap battle on the GasGas KTM.
Di Giannantonio finished his final race of the season in fourth ahead of the factory KTM duo of Miller and Binder.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales took a distant seventh place, while Johann Zarco earned eighth for LCR Honda.
Aleix Espargaro was ninth as Alex Marquez rounded out the top 10 after a strong recovery ride ahead of brother Marc Marquez.
Luca Marini finished narrowly behind the Marquez brothers in 12th, while Takaaki Nakagami crossed the line in 13th.
Bastianini remounted to take the flag in 14th as Joan Mir ensured all of the Hondas scored points in Thailand by finishing 15th.
Quartararo rounded out the finishers in 16th after rejoining the race following his clash with Morbidelli.
Augusto Fernandez and Alex Rins crashed out in the late stages of the race and joined the Trackhouse duo of Raul Fernandez and Lorenzo Savadori, as well as Morbidelli and Marco Bezzecchi as the non-finishers of the Thai Grand Prix.
