Marc Márquez took victory at Motegi in the 125cc Grand Prix of Japan on Sunday as he closed the gap on Championship leader Nico Terol - who finished the race in second position - to six points. It was the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider's seventh win of the season, which came from his ninth pole position start of the year.
Traffic at the start of the race saw Jonas Folger (Team Ongetta) and Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) crash out through no fault of their own as a coming together of bikes affected the duo. The German youngster escaped with bruising to his left arm and Vázquez avoided injury as well, but was transferred to hospital for precautionary checks.
Avoiding the chaos at the head of the race were Terol, Márquez, Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaró and Sandro Cortese who all settled into a leading group of five, which itself became more dispersed as the race continued.
With 14 of the 20 laps completed Márquez had stretched to a lead of just over two seconds ahead of Terol, with Smith (Bancaja Aspar) riding a relatively lonely race in third position. Young British rider Danny Kent, riding for the Lambretta Reparto Corse team and impressing by rising to 14th, then suffered the disappointment of crashing. It was a fate that was also experienced by home rider Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) who was running in fifth when he fell with two laps to go, managing to rejoin the race but finish down in 22nd.
There were no slip ups at the front however as Márquez crossed the line 2.612s clear to narrow the gap on Championship leader Terol, who finished second, with his team-mate Smith collecting a fourth podium of the season by placing third. Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) placed fourth, but dropped to third in the championship standings, seven points adrift of Márquez. Alberto Moncayo (Andalucia Cajasol) sealed an impressive fifth-placed finish for his best result to date.