Spain’s Jorge Martin capped a fantastic weekend with victory in a rain-affected Japanese MotoGP.
Pramac Racing’s Martin set a new lap record on the Motegi circuit to qualify in pole position and also won Saturday’s sprint race.
He was leading Sunday’s grand prix when it was red-flagged at half-distance because of rain, moving to within three points of Ducati’s championship leader Francesco Bagnaia, who was second.
Honda’s Marc Marquez was third.
Rain started falling on the opening lap, which led to a white flag, allowing riders to swap their bikes to suit the conditions better.
After an early mistake, Martin was able to move back through the field to reclaim the lead and stayed there until team-mate Johann Zarco suffered a bad crash, which triggered the red flag.
Race directors attempted to restart the grand prix but when the riders went out on the warm-up lap, the red flag came out again and full points were awarded.
“I was committed to get a great result today,” said Martin. “I went wide [early on] but then I started to recover positions. I felt good and I was able to overtake a lot of them.
“Luckily everyone is OK, but it was too dangerous to keep going.”
There are six rounds of the MotoGP championship remaining, with the next race in Indonesia on 15 October.
