Marc Marquez kept his nerve as he cruised to victory in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix ahead of his Aprilia title rivals.
Marquez completed a weekend double after getting past Jorge Martin at mid-race distance, controlling the race from the moment he got into the lead.
The sprint-race double saw Marquez cut the gap in the standings to just 2 points after Martin took second and Marco Bezzecchi was third.
Martin made the best start from pole position and easily held the lead at the first corner over Marquez, while Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi passed Pedro Acosta for third.
Alex Marquez also got past Acosta quickly after the start in fourth and safely made it through Turn 3 where he caused the sprint collision, waiting for his double long lap penalty to come through.
Acosta, meanwhile, was struggling on the hard rear and dropped from third on the grid to eighth by the third lap, entering a battle with the Trackhouse Aprilias and Diogo Moreira.
At the front, the leading three riders kept trading fastest laps, before Martin and Marquez managed to break almost two seconds clear of Bezzecchi by Lap 10.
After Marquez was setting fastest lap after fastest lap, he eventually took his chance with a lunge at Turn 11, and although Martin tried to tuck back underneath, the Ducati rider had the corner and the lead of the race.
Although Martin and Bezzecchi did close the gap in the late stages, the top positions remained as it was throughout the second half of the race.
It meant Marquez cruised to the line to claim the race victory by 1.363s for his sixth win of 2026.
Martin retained the lead of the championship with second place, while Bezzecchi fended off a late challenge from Enea Bastianini to keep third.
Bastianini set the fastest lap of the race in each of the last five laps, but finished just a tenth off the podium in fourth.
A race long battle between the Trackhouse rider and Acosta culminated in Raul Fernandez taking fifth ahead of Ai Ogura in sixth and Acosta in seventh, while Francesco Bagnaia was eighth.
Fermin Aldeguer took the chequered flag in ninth, as Luca Marini rounded out the top 10 narrowly ahead of Brad Binder.
Fabio Quartararo was 12th over the line, with Somkiat Chantra 13th, Maverick Vinales 14th and Franco Morbidelli completing the points finishers in 15th.
Alex Rins was 16th and narrowly ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu, while Fabio Di Giannantonio was the last of the riders on the leading lap in 17th.
Johann Zarco and Jack Miller rejoined after their respective late crashes a lap down, while Diogo Moreira crashed on Lap 9 and Alex Marquez also failed to take the chequered flag.
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