Alex Marquez fought off Pedro Acosta to win the MotoGP sprint in Barcelona.

Marquez - whose brother Marc is missing this round through injury - fought his way through to the front and then soaked up late-race pressure from Acosta to come out the winner by 0.041s.

Acosta was very aggressive in defending to keep the lead off the line, cutting across Marquez and inadvertently allowing Johann Zarco to join the lead battle for the next few corners - though ultimately Acosta saw him off and Marquez got back past at the end of the lap.

Acosta successfully defended from the Ducati by squeezing it to the inside of the main straight on lap three, but the following lap Marquez went through in the same spot, establishing his control over the race.

He was helped somewhat by Raul Fernandez briefly fighting through to second and then dropping back, with Acosta over half a second down on Marquez once he finally cleared Fernandez.

That gap was eroded to virtually nothing by the final lap, as Marquez ran into front-tyre trouble, but Acosta just ran out of time to line up a proper move on Marquez.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was just four tenths back from them in third. The VR46 Ducati rider was involved in a Turn 1 crash - making contact with Brad Binder, who then washed out wide and collected luckless Honda rider Joan Mir.

But Di Giannantonio was deemed blameless, and he worked his way through to the podium in the end.

Fernandez, fading late on, settled for fourth, with Zarco fifth after his early burst - 0.13s up on sixth-placed Pecco Bagnaia.

Franco Morbidelli, Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi picked up the final points.

Championship leader Bezzecchi was up to sixth early but really laboured for pace, and only picked up a point thanks to a minor last-lap error by Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM).

Bastianini's Tech3 team-mate Maverick Vinales retired due to a reported technical issue.

Bezzecchi's championship lead is up to two points from one point despite his meagre score, as team-mate Jorge Martin went down in the early going - in his fourth crash of the weekend.

Martin was briefly up to fifth but shuffled back by a robust counter-attack from Fernandez, and then crashed at the sharp Turn 10.

Race results

1 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
2 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.041s
3 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.457s
4 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +2.928s
5 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +4.764s
6 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +4.894s
7 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +6.175s
8 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +6.871s
9 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +7.381s
10 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +7.869s
11 Luca Marini (Honda) +8.343s
12 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +9.721s
13 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +10.042s
14 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +14.096s
15 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +14.166s
16 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +14.334s
17 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +20.452s
18 Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha) +20.558s
DNF Maverick Viñales (Tech3 KTM)
DNF Jorge Martin (Aprilia)
DNF Brad Binder (KTM)
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)