Motegi MotoGP: Dovizioso snatches last-lap victory from Marquez

The race devolved into a two-way fight between this year's title protagonists, a reprise of their pulsating Red Bull Ring duel earlier the year that was won by Dovizioso.

Marquez looked to have the edge until suffering a major wobble at Turn 8 on the final lap, allowing Dovizioso to close and ultimately make the race-winning pass at Turn 11.

As in Austria, Marquez tried to fight back at the very last corner, but ran wide, allowing Dovizioso to score his fifth victory of the season by 0.249s from the reigning champion.

Danilo Petrucci enjoyed a lengthy spell in the lead early on, and held a lead as big as 1.9 seconds by the end of the fourth lap with the help of the extra-soft rear tyre.

But the Pramac Ducati rider couldn't keep up the pace, and after being reeled in, the Italian was passed in quick succession by Marquez and Dovizioso on laps 13 and 14 respectively.

With Petrucci now out of the picture, the gap between Marquez and Dovizioso hovered around the half-second mark until the latter made his first attack on lap 19, grabbing the lead at Turn 5.

Dovizioso led by eight tenths at the end of that lap, but Marquez rapidly closed in and took the lead back with three laps to go to set up another thrilling showdown.

The pair traded the lead twice more on the same lap, with Dovizioso making a bold move at Turn 6 only to lose the advantage three turns later, after which Marquez appeared to have the win sealed.

That was until his final-lap error, which allowed Dovizioso to close and pass to take the win, closing his deficit to Marquez in the standings to just 11 points.

Petrucci held on to third place, 10.308s down on Ducati stablemate Dovizioso at the chequered flag.

Suzuki pair Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins delivered the Hamamatsu marque its best result of the season in fourth and fifth, both passing Johann Zarco's Tech 3 Yamaha late on.

Jorge Lorenzo, who led the opening lap but soon found himself shuffled back to the lower end of the top 10 after being pushed out wide by Zarco, passed the Frenchman to take sixth, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) following through for seventh.

Zarco ended up eighth ahead of the factory Yamaha of Maverick Vinales. Valentino Rossi crashed out of ninth place on the sixth lap to complete a disappointing day for the Iwata brand.

Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati) scored the final top 10 place - overtaking Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who would retire from the race late on - ahead of Pol Espargaro on the best of the KTMs.

Katsuyuki Nakasuga was the best of the local contingent in 12th on his wildcard Yamaha, as Hiroshi Aoyama (Marc VDS) struggled to 18th and Kohta Nozane (Tech 3 Yamaha) was an early crasher.

Cal Crutchlow's nightmare weekend continued with two crashes in the race on his LCR Honda, while Aspar duo Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham were the remaining retirees, both falling.

Race results

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time/Gap
1	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	24	47'14.236
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	24	0.249
3	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	24	10.557
4	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	24	18.845
5	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	24	22.982
6	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	24	24.464
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	24	28.010
8	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	24	29.475
9	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	24	36.575
10	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	24	48.506
11	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	24	56.357
12	21	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha	24	1'00.181
13	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	24	1'00.980
14	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	24	1'03.118
15	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	24	1'03.514
16	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	24	1'04.162
17	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	24	1'06.271
18	7	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	24	1'13.250
	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	21	3 laps
	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	20	4 laps
	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	19	5 laps
	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	14	10 laps
	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	5	19 laps
	31	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	3	21 laps