Pedro Acosta claimed his second career sprint victory with a win for KTM in an edgy Saturday race at Sepang.

World championship leader Marc Marquez extended his advantage over the absent Jorge Martin to 19 points by taking second place.

It was an intriguing contest, with ever-present rain drops threatening to gain in severity at any time. Several riders further down the pack did in fact gamble on changing bikes in the hopes that the rain might intensify - but the serious downpour only came when the riders were celebrating afterwards. 

That it was Acosta with the gold medal around his neck had much to do with polesitter Alex Marquez crashing out of the lead on the third tour of the Sepang circuit. Having grabbed the initiative at the first corner, the Gresini Ducati rider had looked in control of proceedings until that point. 

Alex's departure left Ai Ogura at the head of the field, but with only a narrow advantage over Acosta, Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi. Ogura had earlier worked his way ahead of the first two in an aggressive run through the opening two corners of the race.

The Dutch Grand Prix winner was only able to hold the lead until lap eight, however. That's when Acosta made his move. Stubborn defence by Ogura ultimately also allowed Marquez to take second, with Bezzecchi demoting the Japanese rider to fourth a lap later. 

Acosta hung on for the win ahead of his 2027 factory Ducati team-mate, who could be satisfied with nine points after injured title rival Jorge Martin withdrew from proceeedings earlier in the day. 

Acosta now has a brace of sprint wins to his name, with the other also coming in Asia, at the season opener in Thailand. He broke his Sunday race duck when he won the Austrian Grand Prix a few weeks ago.

For much of the race, fifth place was an all-Italian battle between Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini. But late in proceedings, Di Giannantonio made it past Bagnaia and Bastianini dropped back to ninth spot.

That left Brad Binder and Diogo Moreira, who racily progressed eight and six spots from their grid positions respectively, to take seventh and eighth.