Marc Marquez led every lap to dominate the Japanese MotoGP sprint race to gain further ground on title rival Jorge Martin.
Marquez took the lead after hanging Martin out to dry at the first corner and cruised to 12 points and a 22nd career sprint victory.
Martin, meanwhile, suffered late tyre degradation and received a late penalty for track limits, dropping him to third and ceding two further points to Marquez in the title fight.
Marquez made the better start and drew alongside polesitter Martin down the main straight, with the Aprilia rider holding onto the outside at Turn 1.
However, Marquez had the better exit to pull in front of his title rival and took the lead of the race and immediately looked to extend his advantage.
Marco Bezzecchi made a good start behind and passed Acosta to move into third, and pressured team-mate Martin for second but was unable to find a way through in the first part of the lap.
Alex Marquez was fifth on the start and looked to make progress, but made a mistake in the braking zone at Turn 3 and skittled Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio into the gravel trap as all three riders exited the race.
After the chaos, Enea Bastianini emerged in fourth and had the pace to challenge and pass Bezzecchi for third, who was struggling to get his soft tyres into the right window and on braking for the corners.
Bezzecchi then fell further back towards Ai Ogura, who gained six places on the start, and Diogo Moreira. Ogura made the first move on Lap 4, but ran wide which allowed Moreira to tuck underneath and take fifth.
Moreira was then the one to take on Bezzecchi, pulling a late move on Lap 5 and passing the Aprilia rider to take fourth. Ogura then used his pace to add to Bezzecchi’s troubles by demoting him to sixth.
Marquez was able to cruise to the line, getting a 2.466s gap over Martin by the time he took the chequered flag for his 22nd career sprint victory.
Martin looked to have second in the bag but had to fend off a late challenge from Bastianini and Moreira after his tyre dropped severely on the final lap.
Eventually the championship leader managed to take second on track, with Bastianini holding on to complete the podium in third.
However, both riders were penalised for their final track limits violations on the final lap which meant Moreira ended up second, with Martin third and Bastianini fourth.
Ogura finished his home sprint in fifth, while Bezzecchi remained in sixth ahead of Johann Zarco, who led a pack home in seventh.
Raul Fernandez was eighth at the flag, as Fabio Quartararo claimed the final point in ninth.
Fermin Aldeguer completed the top 10 with Luca Marini taking 11th and Franco Morbidelli 12th.
Alex Rins took a late promotion to 13th, narrowly ahead of Somkiat Chantra in 14th and Maverick Vinales in 15th.
Jack Miller took 16th ahead of Pramac Yamaha team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu in 17th, while Brad Binder had a late off and rounded out the finishers in 18th.
Francesco Bagnaia suffered extreme tyre degradation and pulled into the pits on the last lap and joined Acosta, Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez as the non-finishers from the sprint.
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