Francesco Bagnaia batted away the advances of a charging Enea Bastianini to win a fourth successive MotoGP race and close even further on series leader Fabio Quartararo.
The factory Ducati racer made a rapid start to rocket from fifth on the grid to third at Turn 1, which then became second as pole-man and team-mate Jack Miller crashed from the lead at Turn 4 on the second tour.
Bagnaia then stalked Bastianini before diving through on the Gresini rider at Turn 7, though the 2021 vice-champion would quickly come under threat from Maverick Vinales.
The Aprilia rider pushed Bagnaia hard for the majority of the encounter before starting to fade, allowing Bastianini to move back into the runners-up spot and chase down his 2023 team-mate.
The three-time 2022 race winner pressured Bagnaia hard across the final few encounters, though an attempt to pass at Turn 4 on the final circulation would prove crucial as he ran wide and gifted the factory Ducati a few crucial tenths-of-a-second.
This would prove to be enough to narrowly fend off Bastianini to the line by just 0.034s, securing him a fourth successive victory.
Vinales would end up hanging onto the final spot on the rostrum after being closed down by VR46’s Luca Marini and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, the duo completing the top five.
Aleix Espargaro was sixth on the sister Aprilia ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, while Brad Binder recovered well from 15th on the grid to take eighth for KTM.
Jorge Martin struggled for tyre performance across the second half of the contest en-route to ninth for Pramac Racing, while Alex Marquez completed the top ten for LCR Honda after the second factory KTM of Miguel Oliveira was forced to serve a late long-lap penalty for track limits.
Andrea Dovizioso was able to celebrate his second-best result of the year in 12th in his final MotoGP start, the RNF Yamaha man rising from 18th on the grid to hold off a chasing Raul Fernandez.
Marco Bezzecchi saw a second-row start go to waste after crashing at Turn 6 on the second lap just seconds after Miller’s demise, while the other Pramac entry of Johann Zarco saw his race ended early with a crash at the opening bend that also eliminated Honda’s Pol Espargaro and the wildcarding Ducati of Michele Pirro.
Bagnaia’s success sees him to close to within 30 points of championship leader Quartararo with six races remaining, the Italian now moving clear of Espargaro for second in the standings.
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