Racewatch

MotoGP: All Fall Down

Latest crash report reveals which riders crashed, where they fell, and how frequently.

November 24, 2014

Dorna, the Barcelona-based commercial rights holder for the FIM Road Racing World Championship, recently released its annual “Falls Report,” which tabulates all of the crashes by rider, circuit, session, and class from the past season.

Here are some of the more notable findings for the three categories, Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP:

Total number of falls in 18 races: 981, with 206 in MotoGP, 408 in Moto2, and 367 in Moto3, a 12 percent increase across all three classes from 2013.
Riders fell almost twice as frequently in actual races (335) than they did in qualifying (169).
Bradley Smith was MotoGP's most frequent faller (16), topping Alvaro Bautista by two. Stefan Bradl and Karel Abraham tied for third-place "honors" with 13 crashes each.
Two-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez crashed 15 times in 2013, but the Spaniard cut that number to 11 this past season.
Of the MotoGP full-timers, Jorge Lorenzo hit the deck least—twice. Andrea Dovizioso fell off four times.
Poor ol' Sam Lowes. The British Moto2 rider crashed 25 times in 2014, earning the title "Top Crasher" across all classes. His best finish was fifth in Australia.
Mullet-wearing Czech Karel Hanika binned his KTM Moto3 bike an equally improbable 24 times.
Newly crowned Moto3 world champ Alex Marquez fell off 14 times, bringing the total for the Marquez household to 25.
Italy's Misano World Circuit claimed the most riders, a whopping 109, and 38 more than any other circuit. Mugello counted just 36 falls.
As for specific corners, turn 10 at Catalunya—one of just five right-handers on the circuit—grabbed 22 victims, the most in 2014.
On American shores, turn 11 at Circuit of The Americas tagged 13 riders, two more than turn 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Aside from the occasional "contusion" (or even more rare "dislocation" or "fracture"), the most common note in the circuit comments boxes was "RIDER OK."