MOTEGI: Francesco Bagnaia won the Japan MotoGP ahead of championship front-runner Jorge Martin on Sunday to cut the Spaniard’s lead in the overall standings to 10 points with four races remaining.

The Italian defending world champion Bagnaia overtook pole-sitter Pedro Acosta on the first lap at Motegi and stayed in the lead to finish 1.189sec ahead of Martin with Marc Marquez third.

Ducati rider Bagnaia also won Saturday’s sprint race to leave Japan 11 points closer to Pramac’s Martin than he was at the start of the weekend.

It was Bagnaia’s eighth Grand Prix win of the season, his best-ever tally.

It was also his first victory at the Japan MotoGP.

Martin, who is chasing his first world title, started from 11th on the grid after crashing in qualifying.

Spanish rookie Acosta was on pole for the first time in his MotoGP career but he slid out with 21 laps to go while trailing Bagnaia in second.

Acosta had also crashed out in the sprint race.

Italy’s Enea Bastianini finished fourth and stayed third in the overall standings, two points ahead of Spain’s six-time world champion Marquez.

Under cloudy skies but with the rain holding off, Acosta held off Bagnaia on the first turn but the Ital­ian took the lead soon after.

Martin went from 11th to fourth before the first lap was over.

Martin overtook South Africa’s Brad Binder and then moved up to second when Acosta wiped out two laps later.

Martin closed the gap on Bagnaia to under a second with a handful of laps remaining but the Italian had enough pace to see out the win.

Marquez and Bastianini were locked in a titanic tussle for third but Marq­uez held on to his position.

Italy’s Franco Morb­idelli was fifth and Binder was sixth.

Spain’s Maverick Vina­les, who started third on the grid, was another who crashed.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2024