Bagnaia takes vital win - helped by Marquez crash

Defending MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia triumphed in a wet Thai Grand Prix at Buriram, as Marc Marquez crashed in pursuit.

Marquez's crash allowed Jorge Martin to finish second instead, Martin limiting his points losses to Bagnaia as he heads into the final two rounds with a 17-point lead.

A dry race had been expected for much of the weekend, but rain was a factor throughout Sunday's action and decisively soaked the track in the lead-up to the MotoGP race - with it never getting dry enough for anyone to contemplate slicks.

It briefly looked like Martin would capitalise, as he stormed to the lead off the line, getting a much better getaway than fellow front-row starters Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini to take control of the race early on.

So lacking were the factory Ducatis off the line that Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo briefly popped up in second, before being outdragged by Bagnaia coming out of Turn 1.

Bagnaia never let Martin escape far enough up the road, and on lap five Martin could not get his Ducati stopped coming into Turn 3, hanging on to it but letting not just Bagnaia but also Marquez through.

With Martin making too many minor errors here and there to stay in touch with the pair, it came down to a Marquez/Bagnaia duel - with the former attacking the latter at the final corner on lap nine, but Bagnaia protecting the position with a better exit.

Bagnaia tried to break away after that but Marquez reeled him back in to try the same move - with the same outcome - four laps later.

A repeat would've surely followed the next lap, yet Marquez crashed out before he got there, tucking the front at Turn 8 and trying desperately to save the crash before conclusively hitting the deck after hopping the outside kerb.

The crash effectively ended the battle for victory, with Bagnaia and Martin holding station from there on, the reigning champion winning by three seconds over the current championship leader.

The only question mark at that point was whether Martin could yet come under threat for second place from Jack Miller's KTM behind him - but it was Miller who ran out of steam instead.

Having overtaken team-mate Brad Binder, he then had to face up against Pedro Acosta - who himself had worked his way past Binder - in an excellent multi-corner battle on the penultimate lap.

Acosta tried an audacious move around the outside of Turn 3, him and Miller drawing side by side on corner exit and Miller retaliating into Turn 4, only for Acosta to move forward again at Turn 5.

Miller struck back again the following corner, before a Turn 7 move for Acosta settled the matter for good.

Acosta's third-place finish snapped a four-race DNF streak for the rookie, who remains the only non-Ducati rider to finish on a grand prix podium since COTA in April.

A charging Fabio Di Giannantonio, who will go in for shoulder surgery after Buriram and thus end his season prematurely, then added insult to injury for Miller.

The Australian ran wide at Turn 3 and VR46 Ducati rider Di Giannantonio pounced, outdragging him on corner exit.

Miller and Binder thus settled for fifth and sixth, followed by Maverick Vinales - who rode a lonely race to seventh as the lead Aprilia.

Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) struggled in the early going, but lived up to his wet-weather specialist reputation in the second half of the race, powering through into eighth.

The top 10 was completed by Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati). The younger Marquez had crashed on the sighting lap so had to start from the back of the grid.

After crashing, his elder brother Marc rejoined the race in 16th and fought his way up to 11th - despite having had to drop a position after an overly aggressive move on former Honda team-mate Joan Mir.

A total of 16 riders were classified, and three of them had been on the ground. Bastianini - Marc Marquez's rival for third place in the championship - fell at Turn 8 but rejoined. Both of them are now mathematically out of the title battle.

Quartararo didn't last long in podium positions but was still an impressive fifth when he was taken down by former team-mate Franco Morbidelli.

Quartararo rejoined to finish 16th, while Morbidelli served a long-lap penalty before crashing out himself.

There were also falls for Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Augusto Fernandez (Tech3 Gas Gas) and Lorenzo Savadori (Trackhouse Aprilia).

Savadori - riding in relief of injured rain specialist Miguel Oliveira - first went off and then crashed later in the race, remounting to park his RS-GP in the pits. The crash for him was seemingly caused by a technical issue - and the same was true for his team-mate Fernandez.

RESULTS

1 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
2 Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati)
3 Pedro Acosta (Tech3 GasGas)
4 Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati)
5 Jack Miller (KTM)
6 Brad Binder (KTM)
7 Maverick Vinales (Aprilia)
8 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda)
9 Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia)
10 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
11 Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
12 Luca Marini (Honda)
13 Taka Nakagami (LCR Honda)
14 Enea Bastianini (Ducati)
15 Joan Mir (Honda)
16 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
DNF: Augusto Fernandez (Tech3 GasGas), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Lorenzo Savadori (Trackhouse Aprilia), Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati)