A closer look at who hit the deck most during the 2014 MotoGP World Championship
They say that if you never crash, then you’re not trying hard enough. And according to a recent crash analysis report by motogp.com, there was a lot of trying going on this year within the MotoGP paddock. In 2014, there were more than 980 crashes in the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP classes, and motogp.com has broken those crashes down for a closer look at who is hitting the deck the most, the least, and in which session.
MotoGP riders contributed the least to that rather astonishing number, combining to crash 206 times, or just one time more than in 2013. Bradley Smith was the main contributor, having crashed 16 times in a season that he’d rather forget about. Jorge Lorenzo crashed even fever times than last year (two times versus three), while Marc Marquez escaped with just 11 crashes, versus 15 in 2013.
Sixteen crashes may seem like a lot, but Bradley Smith was actually eighth in the list of riders who crashed the most in 2014. Sam Lowes, the 2013 World Supersport Champion and Moto2 rookie, hit the deck a total of 25 times this year. “Axel Pons and Sandro Cortese were not far behind him with 22 and 20 crashes respectively,” the report says. Moto2 and Moto3 riders actually filled the top 7 spots on the list of riders who fell the most in 2014.
The big winner—or loser—in the Moto3 class was Karel Hanika, who hit the eject button a whopping 24 times in his first season with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team.
Just 61 of the 206 MotoGP crashes happened during a race, yet in Moto3, 140 of the 367 total crashes occurred during a race. Similarly, 134 of the 408 (!) Moto2 crashes happened in a race, “as opposed to riding in free practice or qualifying,” motogp.com says.
According to motogp.com, there were no riders in the World Championship who did not record a single crash.
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