There isn’t much Marc Marquez hasn’t won during his glittering grand prix racing career but after failing to top the podium at all during a 2023 MotoGP season to forget, he won’t be thrilled to learn that he did retain his spot at the head of at least one statistical ranking this season…
Yes, Marquez is once again the unwilling recipient of MotoGP’s proverbial ‘cracked egg’ trophy for tallying up more falls over the course of the season than any other rider… not just MotoGP, but Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE too.
The ‘accolade’ will likely come as little surprise to many - not least Repsol Honda or Marquez himself - given the number of headlines the six-time MotoGP World Champion generated during a particularly brutal middle phase of the season that saw him infamously withdraw from the German MotoGP after suffering five huge crashes over three days.
They would ultimately contribute to an eventual end-of-season total of 29 crashes, five more than grand prix racing’s next most prolific faller in 2023.
On the plus side, this isn’t a title Marquez is unfamiliar with. Indeed, even at the peak of his dominance in the premier class, Marquez was still notching up more crashes than the average MotoGP rider thanks to a bruising policy of testing the limits in practice to ensure he kept it upright and fast when it mattered on race day.
Elsewhere in the ranking, Joan Mir compounded Repsol Honda’s misery by tallying the second highest number of crashes with 24 falls, a figure matched by Moto2’s Aron Canet.
Aleix Espargaro, Augusto Fernandez (MotoGP) and GP rookie David Alonso (Moto3) are tied in fourth on 23 crashes each, followed by Alonso Lopez (Moto2), Alex Marquez and Jack Miller (MotoGP) in joint seventh with a total of 21 crashes.
As for the Brits, Moto2 front runner Jake Dixon doesn’t get away lightly himself after showing up in the wrong half of the table with 18 crashes, while Sam Lowes wasn’t far behind with 16.
