Marco Bezzecchi delivered a commanding flag-to-flag victory for Aprilia at the MotoGP season opener in Thailand.
The Italian defeated the rest of the field with authority, while Pedro Acosta and Raul Fernandez completed the podium places.
Pole man Bezzecchi stormed into Turn 1 to take the holeshot, leading ahead of Marc Marquez and Trackhouse Racing’s Fernandez.
Fernandez surged into second by Turn 7, sweeping past the reigning MotoGP champion through the rapid change of direction.
The perfect getaway was exactly what Bezzecchi needed, stretching his advantage to 0.7 seconds by the end of the opening lap and a full second by Lap 2.
Aprilia’s early dominance continued as Jorge Martin made an impressive divebomb at Turn 3 with an opportunistic late braking move but ultimately Marquez could not find an immediate response.
The Spaniard’s struggles continued, as Saturday Sprint winner Pedro Acosta secured fourth place and soon found himself under mounting pressure from VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Martin and Acosta battled it out for the final podium spot on Lap 9. The KTM rider attempted a lunge into the final corner, and Martín fought back, but their squabble into Turn 3 on Lap 10 opened the door for Marquez to sweep past them both.
Acosta reclaimed third place, and that was effectively the end of the battle, with just half a second separating him from the factory Ducati rider in the laps that followed.
In the thick of the three way scrap Bezzecchi had built a 2.0 second lead at the front while Fernandez maintained a 3.3 second margin over Acosta.
Though the racing began to settle, the KTM rider slashed the deficit to Fernandez by half with nine laps remaining.
Honda rider Joan Mir announced himself in the closing laps, overtaking Di Giannantonio for sixth into the final corner.
On Lap 22, factory Ducati rider Marquez suffered a rear puncture and, in the blink of an eye, was forced to retire from the race as violent vibrations on the curb damaged the rim.
His brother Alex retired the following lap after the Gresini rider crashed out of proceedings.
While sitting in fifth, Mir’s race came to an abrupt end as the Spaniard’s Honda slowed with a technical issue.
Despite the action below the podium, Acosta forged his way up to second after overtaking Fernandez.
But victory arrived for Bezzecchi, who bounced back to dominate the race from start to finish, winning by over 5.5s.
Bezzecchi made amends for his crash in the Sprint race and became the first Aprilia rider to win three Grand Prix races in a row.
Acosta ends round one of the championship at the top of the standings after securing second place aboard the KTM.
Fernandez ended his Thailand weekend with a double podium, finishing nine seconds behind Bezzecchi after tyre wear impacted proceedings.
Aprilia’s Martin and Ogura claimed fourth and fifth, making all four riders riding the RS-GP in the top five.
Di Giannantonio finished as the top Ducati rider in sixth, followed by Brad Binder and team-mate Franco Morbidelli.
The second factory Ducati rider, Francesco Bagnaia, finished in ninth after qualifying 13th, 18.3s behind the winner.
Luca Marini rounded off the top 10 for Honda, followed closely by Johann Zarco.
Enea Bastianini crossed the line in 12th place for Tech3, ahead of rookie Diogo Moreira who delivered 13th for Honda in his debut MotoGP outing.
Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins claimed 14th and 15th, respectively, aboard the factory Yamaha.
Maverick Vinales finished in 16th, separating all four Yamaha riders as Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed 17th, finishing eight seconds ahead of team-mate Jack Miller.
Michele Pirro ended the race in 19th, standing in for Gresini rider Fermin Aldeguer.
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