Japanese MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Martin and Marquez, Acosta crashes again
Eighth win of 2024 for Bagnaia in Japan
MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia took a lights to flag victory in the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Jorge Martin to shrink the championship lead to 10 points.
Having won the sprint on Saturday, Bagnaia took the lead from second in the opening corners at Motegi and stayed there for the entire 24-lap contest.
Resisting some late pressure from Martin, Bagnaia took the chequered flag 1.189s clear of the Pramac rider to move to 10 points behind the championship leader now.
Bagnaia’s Japanese GP win marks his eighth of the season, with only Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi achieving this feat in a single campaign.
Martin came from 11th on the grid to limit the damage in second, while Marc Marquez fended off Enea Bastianini to take third.
Pedro Acosta’s hopes of a maiden MotoGP win ended on lap three when he crashed out of second at the last corner.
Just as he did in the sprint, Bagnaia got the best launch and jumped polesitter Acosta off the line - though the Tech3 GASGAS rider did fight hard against the Italian at Turn 1.
Bagnaia came out of Turn 2 in the lead ahead of Acosta, KTM’s Brad Binder, Bastianini and Marquez, while Martin leaped from 11th to sixth.
Martin then passed a warring Marquez and Bastianini at Turn 10 on the first lap to move into fourth.
When Acosta fell out of second on lap three, Martin also found a way through on Binder to move into what was now second, while Bagnaia took a 1.3s lead.
Martin would get this gap down to 0.6s at the start of lap 10, before it steadily went up to over a second again.
By the start of lap 18, Bagnaia led Martin by 1.8s, before the Pramac rider started chipping away at this margin to get as close as 0.9s at the beginning of lap 22.
But Bagnaia responded brilliantly to extend his advantage again and secure the Motegi double.
Marquez found his way through on Binder on lap five to move into the podium places and fended off a hard charge from factory Ducati rider Bastianini through the second half of the grand prix to finish third.
Franco Morbidelli was fifth on the sister Pramac Ducati, with Binder sixth from VR46 duo Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and the sister factory KTM of Jack Miller.
Johann Zarco was top Honda in 11th ahead of leading Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, who ran out of fuel out of the last corner and could do nothing to stop his fellow Frenchman coming through.
Takaaki Nakagami ended his last home race as a full-time racer 13th for LCR.
Honda’s Luca Marini and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez took the final points paying positions.
Acosta remounted from his early crash but retired into the pits on lap 15. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), Augusto Fernandez (Tech3), Alex Marquez (Gresini) and Joan Mir (Honda) all crashed out, while Trackhouse stand-in Lorenzo Savadori retired with an issue.
Alex Marquez collided with Mir at the end of the first lap and took both out. The incident is being investigated by the stewards.
