Dani Pedrosa has taken Honda's first home Japanese Grand Prix victory since 2004, at the same Motegi circuit where his title hopes came to a painful end with a broken collarbone last season.
The incident-packed grand prix contained three ride-through penalties, five accidents, a rare mistake while leading by
Casey Stoner - and a Suzuki in third for part of the race!
Valentino Rossi was first to exit, when contact with
Jorge Lorenzo at turn two caused the Ducati rider to crash - and forced Lorenzo's Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies into the gravel.
Meanwhile, title leader and pole sitter
Casey Stoner had settled into an early lead ahead of Repsol Honda team-mates Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, with Dovizioso passing Pedrosa on lap 3 of 24.
The Italian - winless since 2009 - then took the lead when Stoner got a tank-slapper heading down the back straight on lap 5, the shaking having moved his brake pads away from the disc, causing Stoner to run through the gravel at the following turn.
Just moments later Dovizioso received the news that he had a ride-through penalty for jumping the start - with Marco Simoncelli (5th) and Cal Crutchlow (15th after running wide while 9th) committing the same offence.
The trio pulled into the pits on the following lap, promoting Pedrosa into the race lead from Lorenzo - which Pedrosa built to 7.3sec by the finish - with Alvaro Bautista in third place for Suzuki, just ahead of Nicky Hayden's Ducati.
Suzuki, without a podium since 2008 and yet to confirm their 2012 plans, held the rostrum position until the recovering Stoner re-passed Bautista at the halfway point.
But Bautista would leave Motegi pointless after crashing out soon after, while
Toni Elias also saw a season-best result end in the gravel when the fast-starting Spaniard dropped his LCR Honda from sixth place on lap 18.