Acosta's crash from lead hands Bagnaia sprint win

MotoGP title hopeful Pecco Bagnaia took victory in the sprint at Motegi, as rookie Pedro Acosta crashed out from a commanding lead.

Rain had hit the track before the race but ceased just in time for the start, meaning slicks were still everyone's tyre of choice and what played out was a more or less conventional dry race - with only spots of rainfall.

Bagnaia now trails main championship rival Jorge Martin by 15 points.

SPRINT RESULT

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

Having started on pole, Acosta was tardy off the line, dropping to third behind works Ducati duo Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini - though he reclaimed the spot from Bastianini before the opening lap was over.

On lap three of 12 he worked his way past Bagnaia, too, at Turn 3, with the leading trio breaking away from the rest of the pack but the Ducatis having no recourse against Acosta.

A sort of status quo had held until lap eight, before Acosta started to make his escape from Bagnaia, increasing the gap to a second - and then falling off at Turn 7.

Bagnaia's win looked all but secured from there, with Bastianini struggling to run his pace, but there was still a late scare to come.

With Bastianini under attack from a charging Marc Marquez on the penultimate lap but managing to just about fight Marquez off, both suddenly closed on Bagnaia at a rapid rate, arriving right on the back of the defending champion at the final sector.

But Bastianini never got close enough to attack, finishing 0.181s behind his team-mate, with Marquez completing the podium.

Championship leader Martin more or less negated his qualifying fall with a superb opening lap that took him from 11th into the podium pack, but didn't have frontrunning pace - overtaken by Marquez before finishing a lonely fourth.

His Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli defeated Fabio Di Giannantonio in a near race-long fight for fifth, followed by Alex Marquez, Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales in the final points-paying positions.

Vinales had started on the front row but was down to 11th after getting roughed up on the opening lap.

Acosta's crash should've at least left KTM in position to pick up good points with Brad Binder, but Binder's bike had developed a race-ending technical problem earlier, when he was running fourth and attacking Bastianini.

It was an eventful race for Honda, albeit in the worst way, as Joan Mir and Johann Zarco went wide in tandem at Turn 11 on the opening lap - Mir going into the gravel - before Zarco then nudged LCR team-mate Takaaki Nakagami off his bike.

Zarco received a long-lap penalty for the Nakagami incident.

The other retirement in the race was that of Aleix Espargaro and his Aprilia, crashing out from 11th.