(Reuters) – Reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia won MotoGP’s Japanese Grand Prix sprint on Saturday after leader Pedro Acosta crashed out with four laps to go, reducing his gap with championship leader Jorge Martin, who finished fourth, to 15 points.
Rookie Acosta, who took pole earlier in the day, had overtaken Bagnaia on the third lap to take the lead, but lost control near turn seven, losing the opportunity to win his first MotoGP sprint.
Ducati’s Bagnaia, who moved to 357 points ahead of Sunday’s race, fought off second-placed Enea Bastianini by 0.181 seconds amid occasional rains in Motegi to win his 16th sprint of the season.
“We had to sacrifice a bit of performance during the race to understand the conditions better… I’m very happy because with this condition it’s not very easy to win,” Bagnaia said in his post-sprint interview.
Pramac Racing’s Martin, who started from the 11th position on the grid after crashing during the qualifying session, started well to take the fifth position in the first lap, facing pressure from Marc Marquez, who eventually overtook him.
Marquez momentarily took second place from Bastianini but the Ducati rider recovered to leave him third.
LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed out of his home grand prix sprint after a collision with teammate Johann Zarco, while Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, sixth in the championship, quit due to an issue with his bike.
“We’re investigating what happened to cause Brad Binder’s sprint to come to a premature end,” the team wrote on X. “For now, all we can do is apologise to Brad.”
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
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