Marquez two points off MotoGP lead after Motegi sweep
Defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez controlled the Japanese Grand Prix to close in on the points lead, completing a clean sweep of the Motegi weekend.
All riders used the reinforced-casing Michelin hard rear - with the soft removed from the allocation after blistering in the sprint, and the medium unfancied.
Marquez now sits two points back from leader Jorge Martin after again overtaking Martin en route to victory.
In the sprint this had happened immediately on the opening lap, but here Martin led the first half of the race as the three main title contenders - Martin, Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi - broke away from the chasing pack.
With Bezzecchi gradually falling back from the pair, Martin held the lead until lap 11 of 24, when Marquez went past at Turn 9.
Martin's attempt to stay with his title rival ran out of steam on the next lap through that Turns 9-10 sequence, and he never really threatened after that, the gap eventually stabilising at around a second between the two.
Bezzecchi completed the podium behind them, though had come under surprise pressure from behind, with a customary late-race charge from Enea Bastianini bringing the Tech3 KTM rider to just 0.078s off the podium on the run to the line.
Bastianini had overtaken KTM stablemate Acosta on the second lap, with Acosta also quickly picked off by the Trackhouse Aprilias of Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura.
He spent nearly the entirety of the race after that labouring to get back past the Trackhouses. clearing Ogura but then leaving himself vulnerable to a counter-attack as he tried to beat Fernandez.
So eventually he was back to square one and settling for a disappointing seventh, with Fernandez ultimately fending off Ogura for fifth.
Pecco Bagnaia, Fermin Aldeguer and Luca Marini completed the top 10, while Marini's stand-in team-mate Somkiat Chantra scored three points for 13th.
Alex Marquez had gone with the leading trio after the start but was relegated to ninth by a double long-lap penalty for causing the multi-bike sprint crash.
He was promoted to eighth when sprint standout Diogo Moreira crashed in front of him, but then also crashed out of eighth place.
There were also falls for Jack Miller and Johann Zarco, Zarco's race already compromised at that point by a double long-lap penalty he'd incurred for trying to restart his bike at the side of the track in warm-up.
Race results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
2 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +1.363s
3 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +2.252s
4 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +2.330s
5 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +14.815s
6 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +15.210s
7 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +16.928s
8 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +20.333s
9 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +23.545s
10 Luca Marini (Honda) +25.677s
11 Brad Binder (KTM) +25.853s
12 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +30.867s
13 Somkiat Chantra (Honda) +31.333s
14 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +33.995s
15 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +34.590s
16 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +39.228s
17 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +39.562s
18 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +50.816s
19 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +1m11.127s
20 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +2 laps
DNF Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
DNF Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda)
