‌The Italian, starting second on the grid, ‌quickly grabbed the lead and never looked back for his second win of the year after his triumph at the season-opening Thailand Grand Prix earlier this month.

Jorge Martin made it an Aprilia one-two on Sunday and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio held off Marc Marquez down the stretch to claim third.

Bezzecchi said he ‌and his team ‌were forced ⁠to dig deep after struggling during Friday’s rain-hit practice.

“It was a tough ​weekend, it was super tough on Friday, we started in a bad way and it was difficult to keep the motivation super high,” the 27-year-old said.

“But the guys did a wonderful job and I pushed myself over the limit to try to compensate everything I could ... and from this morning I felt better, so I said, ‘OK, maybe I ​can try ‌to fight.’ It was an amazing race, I’m super happy.”

With the win, Bezzecchi overtook KTM’s Pedro ​Acosta and now leads the championship standings by 11 points.

Bezzecchi dedicated the victory to his friend Roberto Lunadei, a 42-year-old mechanic who died in a road traffic accident last week.

Australia’s Jack Miller was one of four riders that failed to finish.

The ​race distance was cut from 31 laps ​to 23 amid track degradation concerns and scorching ‌temperatures in Goiania, a change that was only announced just before the start of the race.

Saturday’s sprint race was delayed by more than an hour as officials carried out urgent track repairs after a large hole was discovered near the starting line.

The competition at the Ayrton Senna Circuit marked MotoGP’s return ​to Brazil for the first time in more than two decades.

MotoGP action now shifts from ​South America to North America ⁠with the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas on March 27-29.

AAP