The Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) won the Japanese Grand Prix, reducing the gap to ten points on the leader in the world championship, the Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) who finished 2nd on Sunday. Bagnaia totally dominated the race after taking the lead just after the start, given on a slightly wet track. The young Spanish prodigy Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3), who started in pole position, quickly fell just like the day before during the sprint race.
It’s another Spaniard, the six-time world champion Marc Marquez (Ducati-Gresini) who climbs to the 3rd step of the podium and remains 4th in the championship but far from the fight between the first two. Starting 11th on the grid, Martin made a fantastic comeback, finishing a second behind Bagnaia and maintains a 10-point championship advantage over the Italian with four races remaining.
“We managed to gain 11 points this weekend,” underlined the winner after the finish, keeping his eyes fixed on a third title after those won the two previous years. He had already won the sprint race the day before, Martin finishing him 4th. The Spaniard now has 392 points to 382 for the Italian.
Acosta, who on Saturday obtained the first pole position of his young career in MotoGP where he is starting this year, did not keep his property for very long by immediately being passed by “Pecco” Bagnaia.
Then, like the day before during the sprint, Acosta crashed on the 3rd lap by accelerating too hard coming out of a corner. Although he managed to get his motorbike lying in the gravel trap back up, he left in last position before later giving up, disappointed.
This benefited Jorge Martin, who started only 11th on the grid but made a great start. Unchained, he set off after Bagnaia, managing to come back to around a second behind his rival.
