Maverick Vinales dominated at Sepang to take his second win of 2019 in the Malaysian grand prix to head Marc Marquez who recovered from 11th to second.
Vinales lost out to both Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli off the start, but reversed his fortunes as he moved back ahead of Morbidelli early on the opening tour before relegating Miller to second with a bold move at Turn 11.
He was then helped by Miller holding up the pursing pack behind, led by the relentless Marquez.
The Honda man had dived down the inside of several riders at Turn 1 to get into sixth, before dispatching Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli later in the lap.
He then moved into second at the final corner as Miller and Andrea Dovizioso ran wide, although had to re-pass Miller later as the Pramac rider drafted back past on the run to Turn 1.
Vinales meanwhile continued to build his lead, which stood at 1.5 seconds by the time Marquez had finally established himself in second a couple of laps later.
Marquez pushed hard to try and close down the leading Yamaha, the pair swapping fastest laps but the world champion unable to make much ground.
Marquez though made a crucial error just past mid-disacne that dropped him eight-tenths further behind Vianels, leaving the Spaniard with a 2.8 second lead.
He continued to control the gap across the remaining laps, ultimately taking the chequered flag just over three seconds clear of Marquez.
Dovizioso meanwhile came out on top of a close battle for third also involving Valentino Rossi and Alex Rins.
Rossi pressured the Ducati over the second half of the 20 lap contest, but was unable to find an answer to the superior straight line prowess of the GP19 in front, while all the time being closed down by the GSX-RR behind.
Despite getting little respite from the pursuing Yamaha Dovizioso held strong to secure third place, while Rins just ran out of time to seriously challenge Rossi for fourth on the final tour.
Morbidelli and Quartararo closed out a disappointing race for the Petronas SRT squad in sixth and seventh, the pair displaying pace far away from their dominant Friday and Saturday performances and struggling to make much ground after being pushed back early on- crossing the line 9.9 and 12.8 seconds behind Vinales respectively.
Jack Miller faded to eighth in the end ahead of Danilo Petrucci, while Joan Mir rounded out the top ten despite receiving a late long-lap penalty for taking out Johann Zarco.
The Suzuki man wiped out the LCR Honda from a strong ninth with only a few laps remaining as he tried to pass him, but managed to stay upright himself while Zarco was forced to retire.
Further back Jorge Lorenzo picked up his first points since Misano with 14th ahead of Mika Kallio, while Francesco Bagnaia denied Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia for 12th on the last tour.
Vinales’ victory now moves him into third overall in the riders points standings by seven points over Rins, while Petrucci and Quartararo have now been eliminated from third place contention due to dropping more than 25 points back from Vinales with only a sole round remaining.
Petrucci is exactly 25 behind Vinales, but would lose out to Vinales on count-back should he win and Vinales not score in Valencia.
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