Race report

MotoGP Japanese GP: Bagnaia slashes Martin's lead with win, Acosta crashes

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Francesco Bagnaia won Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after leading the race at Motegi from lights to flag, heading home Jorge Martin and thus closing to within 10 points of the Spaniard with four rounds left in the world championship.

Martin’s ride from a lowly 11th on the grid to within just over a second of Bagnaia by the end of the race was a successful damage limitation effort after a difficult weekend aboard his Pramac Ducati.

Polesitter Pedro Acosta (Tech3 KTM) crashed out of the race, just as he had when leading the Saturday sprint. This time the Spaniard was in second place when he tumbled, having already lost the lead to Bagnaia at the start. He was pushing the world champion hard for control of the race when his challenge ended on lap three.

The opening laps were a hectic affair, with several riders gaining and losing positions dramatically from their grid slots. Among these were Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Martin, who had qualified out of position in ninth and 11th respectively. Martin made it into second place as early as lap four, when he slipped past KTM’s Brand Binder.

Another fast starter was Binder’s team-mate Jack Miller, who rocketed from 14th to as high as fifth on lap two before fading again.

Moving in the other direction, just as in the sprint on Saturday, was front-row starter Maverick Vinales. The Aprilia rider found himself ninth on the first lap after contact with Marquez in the first corner. He proceeded to drop further back from there before ultimately falling on lap 13.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

VR46 riders Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi also lost several spots after starting seventh and eighth respectively, before both set about recovery rides.

By lap five, most of this early jockeying was over, Acosta was circulating almost a lap down after his fall and the race had settled into an order.

Bagnaia led Martin by 1.4s at this point, the duo gaping the chasing pack led by Marquez, Binder and Enea Bastianini on the second red factory Ducati.

Binder appeared to be struggling with his race package and was only able to hold off Bastianini until lap 11.

After that move there were no further changes among the top four for the rest of the race. Bagnaia was able to keep Martin out of striking distance with a typical display of race management.

Likewise, Marquez also stayed just out of the threatening Bastianini’s reach, with neither able to do anything about the lead pair.

Late in the race, Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati) demoted Binder to sixth place. The South African just clung on ahead of the recovering VR46 duo of Bezzecchi and di Giannantonio.

Aleix Espargaro salvaged a little joy for Aprilia with his ride to ninth place, leading a tight pack across the line. In his tow were Miller, Johann Zarco (LCR Honda), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Takaaki Nakagami.

LCR rider Nakagami thus finished in the points in his final home race as a full-time MotoGP rider, after being punted out by his team-mate in Saturday's sprint.

Luca Marini snatched two points further points for circuit owner Honda, while Raul Fernandez rounded out the scorers for Trackhouse Aprilia.

MotoGP Japanese GP - Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	24	42'09.790		163.9		25
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	24	+1.189 42'10.979	1.189	163.8		20
3	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	24	+3.822 42'13.612	2.633	163.7		16
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	24	+4.358 42'14.148	0.536	163.6		13
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	24	+17.940 42'27.730	13.582	162.8		11
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	24	+18.502 42'28.292	0.562	162.7		10
7	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	24	+19.371 42'29.161	0.869	162.7		9
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	24	+20.199 42'29.989	0.828	162.6		8
9	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	24	+30.442 42'40.232	10.243	162.0		7
10	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	24	+31.184 42'40.974	0.742	161.9		6
11	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	24	+31.567 42'41.357	0.383	161.9		5
12	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	24	+32.299 42'42.089	0.732	161.9		4
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	24	+33.003 42'42.793	0.704	161.8		3
14	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	24	+35.974 42'45.764	2.971	161.6		2
15	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	24	+39.321 42'49.111	3.347	161.4		1
16	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	24	+40.839 42'50.629	1.518	161.3
17	R. Gardner Yamaha Factory Racing	87	Yamaha	24	+59.547 43'09.337	18.708	160.1
dnf	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	12	+12 Laps 23'15.798	12 Laps	148.5	Retirement
dnf	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	+13 Laps 19'33.809	1 Lap	161.9	Accident
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	6	+18 Laps 10'46.773	5 Laps	160.3	Accident
dnf	L. Savadori Trackhouse Racing Team	32	Aprilia	1	+23 Laps 1'58.511	5 Laps	145.8	Retirement
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	0				Accident
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	0				Accident
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