Bagnaia holds off Martin to seal Japanese Grand Prix double

MOTEGI, Japan : Twice MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia won the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi on Sunday to complete a weekend double and cut his gap to rival Jorge Martin at the top of the world championship down to 10 points.

The Ducati rider, who qualified in second after dominating practice and won Saturday's sprint, kept Martin at bay for 20 laps to clinch an eighth win of the season for the first time in his career.

Martin's second-place finish moved him up to 392 points while Bagnaia is second on 382, with four races left to go in the season.

"I feel super happy. We managed to gain 11 points during this weekend," said Bagnaia, whose win was the 900th by an Italian in MotoGP history.

The race began in overcast conditions at Motegi's Twin Ring circuit, with pole-sitter Pedro Acosta overtaken before the first turn of the first lap as Bagnaia darted past him into the lead.

Championship leader Martin (Pramac Racing) began in the fourth row after crashing during qualifying, but had a spectacular opening lap as he launched himself off the line and quickly moved up from 11th to fourth.

The battle for the riders' championship came to the forefront in the fourth lap when Martin rose to second as he overtook Brad Binder and rookie Acosta, who crashed in Saturday's sprint, once again went down.

MANAGING THE RACE

Bagnaia managed the race well and kept a healthy distance between himself and Martin.

"Jorge today was much stronger, so I was just trying to manage the gap," Bagnaia added.

"I think the pace was incredible. We have to move on to the next one with the same ambition, the same strategy, and try to continue like this."

Alarm bells went off for Ducati in the 22nd lap as the Spaniard cut down the lead to 0.8 seconds with a