Marc Marquez snatched victory on the final lap of the Australian grand prix at Philip Island as Maverick Vinales crashed out late on.
Marquez got an average start but remained within the top five during the opening stages of the race, ahead of pole-man Vinales who got an even worse getaway and had slipped to sixth.
The leading group of eight riders remained close throughout the opening third of the contest, led initially by Valentino Rossi who got his 400th MotoGP start underway in the strongest way possible.
Vinales proved to have considerably more pace than the others around him though, and slowly but surely worked his way through from sixth to take the lead away from Cal Crutchlow with just under two-thirds of the race remaining.
From this point on Vinales began to stretch away from the rest, followed closely though by Marquez who had quickly dispatched of the LCR Honda shortly after Vinales had wrestled the lead away.
Marquez then pressured the Yamaha rider over the remaining laps before blasting past down the main straight on the final lap, forcing Vinales to attack.
He looked to move past at Turn 4 but was denied by the world champion, with only the Lukey Heights/MG section remaining to get back ahead.
Heartbreak was just around the corner for Vinales though, as he lcoked the rear of his M1 and crashed heavily on the entry to MG while looking for a way past, retiring in the gravel as a result.
This allowed Marquez to cruise home to his 11th win of the year, 11.5 seconds clear of Crutchlow.
Jack Miller scored an emotional home podium as he led home team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, who managed to recover from 15th on the grid to fourth.
Joan Mir rounded out the top five for Suzuki ahead of an impressive sixth for Andrea Iannone’s Aprilia.
Iannone ran well inside the top three in the opening stanza of the encounter, even briefly moving into the lead as he moved past Crutchlow into MG-before losing out on the main straight just seconds later and dropping back.
Andrea Dovizioso was seventh ahead of Rossi who faded considerably towards the end, while Alex Rins and Aleix Espargaro completed the top ten.
Johann Zarco brought the second LCR Honda home in a respectable 13th just behind Pol Espargaro's KTM, and 40 seconds ahead of the badly struggling Jorge Lorenzo.
Danilo Petrucci and Fabio Quartararo both retired on the opening tour when they came together at Turn 2, instigated by a mistake from the Italian.
Petrucci high-sided while trying to get on the power after he ran wide, his GP19 violently flinging him into the side of Quartararo’s Yamaha as a result.
These caused the Frenchman to also go down, and despite having to end their races in the gravel both were thankfully unharmed.
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