Enea Bastianini cruised to the Thai MotoGP Sprint victory after a Turn 1 tangle from Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia.
The tangle proved a minor incident as Martin and Bagnaia rounded off the podium to accompany the Italian, who cleared off into the distance as soon as he gained the lead at Turn 1.
Martin attacked from the off but marginally forced himself and his title rival Bagnaia out wide, which put the factory Ducati rider in the lead from the off.
The Pramac rider dropped back to fifth with Bagnaia in third but elevated his way up to second down the end of the straight at Turn 3.
Martin secured the all-important move on rookie Pedro Acosta on lap 2, but the early stages signified regular patterns for the rest of the race.
The GP24 was much faster than the GP23 down the straights as Bagnaia steered clear of Marc Marquez in third, but the Gresini rider was able to claw part of the gap back by in sectors two and three.
Once again, Acosta crashed out of proceedings at Turn 3 on lap 4. He marginally lost the front of his GasGas bike but rejoined dead last as the 20-year-old’s torrid form continued.
Marquez was under threat from the championship leader and relinquished his third place on lap 5, enabling Martin to challenge the factory Ducati duo ahead.
Out front, Bastianini gained a second advantage over the rest of the field after snatching the lead at the start and looked calm and collected in the lead.
The Rimini-based star previously stated that he wasn’t up to scratch with his fellow Ducati riders, but he looked extremely comfortable out front.
Martin caught Bagnaia napping in the second sector on lap 7 and overtook at the flip-flop Turn 6 corner to go up to second place. He gained a track limit warning because he overtook the Italian, then went slightly off on the curves and pushed on to the leading Ducati rider of Bastianini.
However, in the closing laps, Martin could not get anywhere near Bastianini out front, with his championship rival breathing down his neck and eyeing up a potential move.
Bagnaia made a marginal mistake on the penultimate lap, which enabled Martin to hold on to second heading into the final lap.
Bastianini crossed the line to win the Sprint race by an over-a-second margin, which will contribute to his attempts to secure third spot in the championship.
Martin brought the bike home in second and extended his championship lead over Bagnaia to 22 points. The Pramac rider recovered from fifth to finish second, extending his advantage at the top of the standings.
Bagnaia could only muster third place despite claiming pole earlier in the day. The Italian has even more work to do for Sunday’s main event.
The Gresini Ducati duo of Marc and Alex Marquez finished fourth and fifth, with both riders separated by five seconds.
All Ducati teams demonstrated its dominance as all four teams finished inside the top eight scoring positions. Franco Morbidelli secured sixth for Pramac ahead of the VR46 riders Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
KTM’s Brad Binder secured the final point despite a lacklustre performance in qualifying, with Fabio Quartararo ending his race in tenth.
Jack Miller finished in 11th as the Honda duo of Johann Zarco and Joan Mir claimed the two highest spots for Honda.
Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez worked his way up the grid to finish 14th, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro ending his race only a few tenths behind the satellite Aprilia.
Augusto Fernandez and Alex RIns sealed 16th and 17th spots ahead of the last two Honda riders, Takaaki Nakagami and Luca Marini, who enjoyed a battle for 18th and 19th position.
Maverick Vinales recorded a disappointing 20th despite being the lead Aprilia rider all weekend but finished ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, who crossed the line ten seconds later.
Acosta decided to retire the bike following his crash early on, meaning he was the only rider to retire from the Sprint.
