Marc Marquez closed the gap to world championship leader Jorge Martin by claiming victory in the sprint race at Motegi on Saturday.
Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini crossed the line second and third but were both demoted a place after the finish for exceeding track limits, giving Moreira his best MotoGP finish.
KTM's Pedro Acosta was taken out of the race by Marc's brother Alex on the first lap.
The start proved decisive as Marc got away well from the middle of the front row, getting his nose ahead of Martin into the first corner. Martin tried to battle it out around the outside, but eventually had to slot back into line.
From that point on, pole man Martin would never seriously threaten Marquez, whose win allowed him to close the gap to Martin to seven points going into tomorrow's grand prix.
Another major moment in the race came just seconds after Marquez had made the early lead his own. As the field braked for Turn 3, Alex Marquez lost control of his Gresini Ducati and took out both Fabio Di Giannantonio and Acosta.
That misfortune for KTM's young hero Acosta meant a rare chance for one of the other Austrian bikes to shine. Tech3's Bastianini made the most of the opportunity after a fast start from seventh had got him ahead of the chaos that took out his factory colleague.
In third at that point was Marco Bezzecchi, but the factory Aprilia wouldn't hang onto that spot for long. The Italian was the only front-runner to opt for the medium rear tyre in the sprint, and was battling for speed throughout most of the race. He was picked off by Bastianini on lap three, then Moreira and Ai Ogura on lap five.
In the end, Bezzecchi did well to salvage a handful of points for sixth place, helped to some degree by Johann Zarco and Raul Fernandez battling each other hard behind him for much of the race.
There was little threat of a serious battle inside the top six once it had settled - until the final lap, that is. Suddenly things closed up between Martin, Bastianini and Moreira, with the KTM almost pulling alongside the Aprilia at the finish line.
Although the order on the circuit didn't actually change before the chequered flag, track limits penalties for Martin and Bastianini were announced in the immediate aftermath, promoting Moreira to second.
Martin and Bastianini were thus classified third and fourth, ahead of Ogura, who salvaged a reasonable home result from 11th on the grid, on what has been a tricky weekend thus far for the Trackhouse Aprilia man.
SPRINT
| Cla | Rider | # | Bike | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Retirement | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  M. Marquez Ducati Team |
93 |  |
Ducati | 12 | 20'50.376 |
165.8 | 12 | |||||
| 2 |  D. Moreira Team LCR |
11 |  |
Honda | 12 | +2.754 20'53.130 |
2.754 | 165.5 | 9 | ||||
| 3 | J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team |
89 |  |
Aprilia | 12 | +2.466 20'52.842 |
165.5 | 7 | |||||
| 4 |  E. Bastianini Tech 3 |
23 |  |
KTM | 12 | +2.508 20'52.884 |
0.042 | 165.5 | 6 | ||||
| 5 |  A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team |
79 |  |
Aprilia | 12 | +5.992 20'56.368 |
3.484 | 165.0 | 5 | ||||
| 6 | M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team |
72 |  |
Aprilia | 12 | +6.984 20'57.360 |
0.992 | 164.9 | 4 | ||||
| 7 |  J. Zarco Team LCR |
5 |  |
Honda | 12 | +8.088 20'58.464 |
1.104 | 164.8 | 3 | ||||
| 8 | R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team |
25 |  |
Aprilia | 12 | +8.817 20'59.193 |
0.729 | 164.7 | 2 | ||||
| 9 | F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing |
20 |  |
Yamaha | 12 | +10.586 21'00.962 |
1.769 | 164.4 | 1 | ||||
| 10 | F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing |
54 |  |
Ducati | 12 | +11.129 21'01.505 |
0.543 | 164.4 | |||||
| 11 | L. Marini Honda HRC |
10 |  |
Honda | 12 | +13.632 21'04.008 |
2.503 | 164.0 | |||||
| 12 | F. Morbidelli Team VR46 |
21 |  |
Ducati | 12 | +15.209 21'05.585 |
1.577 | 163.8 | |||||
| 13 | A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing |
42 |  |
Yamaha | 12 | +19.873 21'10.249 |
4.664 | 163.2 | |||||
| 14 |  S. Chantra Honda HRC |
15 |  |
Honda | 12 | +19.983 21'10.359 |
0.110 | 163.2 | |||||
| 15 | M. Viñales Tech 3 |
12 |  |
KTM | 12 | +20.469 21'10.845 |
0.486 | 163.2 | |||||
| 16 |  J. Miller Pramac Racing |
43 |  |
Yamaha | 12 | +21.894 21'12.270 |
1.425 | 163.0 | |||||
| 17 |  T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing |
7 |  |
Yamaha | 12 | +38.442 21'28.818 |
16.548 | 161.3 | |||||
| 18 |  B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing |
33 |  |
KTM | 12 | +41.284 21'31.660 |
2.842 | 160.5 | |||||
| dnf | F. Bagnaia Ducati Team |
63 |  |
Ducati | 11 | +1 Lap 19'20.309 |
1 Lap | 163.8 | Retirement | ||||
| dnf | P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing |
37 |  |
KTM | 0 | +12 Laps 18.721 |
11 Laps | Accident | |||||
| dnf | F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 |
49 |  |
Ducati | 0 | +12 Laps 18.872 |
0.151 | Accident | |||||
| dnf | A. Marquez Gresini Racing |
73 |  |
Ducati | 0 | +12 Laps 18.926 |
0.054 | Accident | |||||
| View full results | |||||||||||||
