Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Team)

The Spaniard is the rider with the most falls on his end of season report card – but it didn’t stop him taking the crown

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) had 27 crashes in 2017 and the reigning Champion began this season saying he wanted to make sure 2018 went a little smoother. That it did – just – and he certainly put on another incredible show in terms of saves…but he remains the king of the premier class crashers.

The crash counter for the number 93 ended at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana, which saw him take another two tumbles to push his total to 23 for the season* – the most of anyone in MotoGP™.  This season, he’s followed by Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Team) on 21 and rookie Xavier Simeon (Reale Avintia Racing) on 18. There is some good news for Marquez, however, with only two of the crashes coming on Sunday afternoon as he crashed out at Mugello and Valencia.

In Moto2™, Stefano Manzi (Forward Racing Team) topped the charts of crashers with 31, ahead of Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors) and Jorge Navarro (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) who took 2https://sports247.my/wp-admin/7 and 24 tumbles respectively.

Moto3™ has a somewhat surprising name at the top: Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PruestelGP). The Italian fought for the title despite his 24 crashes, and he ended the year just ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA BOE Skull Rider) on 22 and Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) on 21.

So who were the riders who crashed the least? In MotoGP™ the honour went to Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing), who crashed just four times, and in Moto2™ the same was true of Dominique Aegerter (Kiefer Racing) and Francesco Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team VR46). In Moto3™ Philipp Öttl (Südmetall Schedl GP Racing) went two better and crashed just twice.

Overall in 2018 there were less crashes, in part thanks to the better weather that greeted much of the season. The grand total over all categories is 1077, versus 1126 in 2017. 303 were in MotoGP™, down 10 on last season, Moto2™ had 418 rather than 434, and there were 356 in the lightweight class – 23 less.

In terms of race weekends, this year it was Valencia that came out on top, which could be expected given the weather. The season finale saw 155 crashes, of which a staggering 38 occurred at Turn 4, with Le Mans next up on 109. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya locked out the top three with 100 falls during the Grand Prix.

*Testing and other events not included

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