Marc Marquez produced a statement victory in the Qatar MotoGP race at the Lusail International Circuit ahead of Maverick Vinales and Francesco Bagnaia.
The eight-time World Champion had to fight back from an unfamiliar third place as he recorded his second career win at the QatarGP, and his first since 2014.
Marquez started on pole position and got another fantastic start to lead down into Turn 1 ahead of younger brother Alex Marquez.
However, the younger Marquez made contact with his brother on the exit of the corner, which compromised both riders as Franco Morbidelli took advantage to lead the race.
Bagnaia also made a good start from the fourth row of the grid, as he worked his way through to sixth by passing Fabio Quartararo.
Fabio Di Giannantonio made a pass on the younger Marquez for third, but as the Spanish rider attempted to respond, he made contact with the Italian and ran both riders wide.
Marquez rejoined in seventh and was awarded a long lap penalty for the incident, but Di Giannantonio was relegated to 20th after losing one of his mirrors.
Bagnaia, after being promoted into the podium positions, then found his way through on Marquez for second as the teammates went head-to-head on the track for the first time this season.
Marquez waited two laps to get back through on Bagnaia, and was able to use the slipstream to make his move in the first corner.
Vinales also had the pace to challenge the front runners, as the Tech3 KTM rider passed Bagnaia.
The Spanish rider clearly was in a position to challenge for the victory and stuck with Marquez before making his move into second on Lap 10.
Soon after Vinales took the lead of the race from Morbidelli, with Marquez also making his way through on the Italian for second.
Bagnaia and Morbidelli then commenced a duel for the final podium position as the VR46 rider managed to maintain his place.
The Ducati rider was eventually able to make a move stick on his fellow VR46 academy graduate, with Zarco the next to put the one-time race leader under pressure.
In the meantime, World Champion Jorge Martin was riding a solid race down in 17th on his return, but suffered a nasty-looking crash as his hand got stuck under the bike on his return from injury.
Vinales made a mistake while running in the lead, which allowed Marquez to take the lead of the race for the first time since the first corner on Lap 1.
Bagnaia was also closing in on Vinales for second, but the Italian appeared to use too much tyre and looked to settle for third.
Marquez eventually took the chequered flag to record his third victory of the campaign by almost two seconds.
Vinales ended the Ducati monopoly of the podium by recording a second-place finish for the Tech3 KTM outfit, but was under investigation for tyre pressures.
Bagnaia fought back from his fourth-row start to complete the podium in third.
Morbidelli held onto fourth place ahead of Zarco in fifth, while Fermin Aldeguer continued his stunning weekend in sixth.
Gresini’s Marquez recovered after multiple Lap 1 incidents to take seventh as Quartararo earned eighth for Yamaha.
Pedro Acosta won his battle with Marco Bezzecchi for ninth as the Aprilia rider had to settle for a top 10 finish.
Luca Marini took home 11th for Honda as Enea Bastianini was unable to find his usual late race pace down in 12th.
Alex Rins crossed the line in 13th ahead of Brad Binder in 14th, with Ai Ogura rounding out the points finishers in 15th.
Di Giannantonio could only manage 16th after his contact with Marquez, while Raul Fernandez in 17th and Somkiat Chantra in 18th completed the finishers.
Martin crashed out of the race along with the Pramac Yamaha pair of Augusto Fernandez and Jack Miller, while Joan Mir retired from the race due to illness.
