Pedro Acosta steals another record from Marc Márquez

Life is based on that: grit your teeth and pull forward. Things happen,” shrugged Pedro Acosta (20) on Phillip Island, after getting one of his scares of the year. “A high-side of a motherfucker, those who have not been seen for a long time”, in the words of the irreverent Murcian driver, who has closed the 2024 World Championship by stealing another record from Marc Márquez: that of king of falls, with a total of 28. Only one less than the Catalan’s still record figure in his catastrophic 2023, the last season with Honda.

The official statistics for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship provided by Dorna Sports place Acosta at the top of the falls classification (28), ahead of the Márquez brothers, Marc, 24 (five less than last year) and Àlex, 21. It is the podium of dubious honor, which could have an explanation: Acosta was making his debut in the premier category, hence due to his lack of experience he sought more the limits of the KTM, and Marc was riding the Ducati for the first time, a mount that, despite giving him more security and with which he had to risk less, was still unknown to him.

Although this case should not make us forget that the two drivers who kiss the asphalt the most have a similar, aggressive style of letting go and taking risks. For some reason the eldest of the Márquez family has always been in the top 3 of the riders with the most falls in MotoGP (23 in 2018, 22 in 2021, 18 in 2022, or 29 in 2023).

The good news is that in 2024 the number of falls has been reduced to 865, the lowest number of the decade

Next, on the list of the 22 regular MotoGP riders and 6 reserves, the two from KTM appear, Jack Miller (20) and Brad Binder (19), and the Spaniards Aleix Espargaró (19) and Augusto Fernández (19). The champion, Jorge Martín, appears in the middle zone with 15 falls, and the runner-up, Pecco Bagnaia, in the lower part with 9. The one who fell the least was Luca Marini with Honda (4).

Curiously, among the hundred riders in the three categories of the World Championship, the MotoGP riders occupy the top seven positions in the ranking. The first small With the most falls were David Almansa from La Mancha (18, 8th in the ranking) in his first full year in Moto3, the Italian Filippo Farioli (Moto3) and the Dutch Zonta van den Goorbergh (Moto2), also with 18.

In the circuits there has also been a change of leader. The usual track that records the most crashes, Le Mans (France), almost always watered by rain, has given way to Jerez, which has recorded 74 accidents this year, an unprecedented figure on the Andalusian track: compared to 2023 there have been 24 falls more. It is explained, in part, by the appearance of rain in three sessions on Saturday (30 falls).

Jerez is followed by the Indonesian circuits (67th, dry) and Australia (64th, with five wet sessions). The Circuit de Montmeló (49 crashes in the GP of Catalunya in May) was the 5th, although in the GP Solidario of Barcelona in November the record dropped to 30, while the Motorland of Alcañiz, with only 29 crashes, was the second circuit with the fewest setbacks of the year (only surpassed by Qatar, 28).

Jerez (74 falls) and its turn 13 (29) were the black points of the World Cup; Aragón (29) and Qatar (28), the safest

In the chapter of curves with the most accidents, this year the 4th at Phillip Island – called Honda Corner – takes the cake, a very tight right angle that encourages overtaking and the assumption of more risk, and which concentrated 29 of the 64 crashes in the Australian GP; followed by the last corner of Jerez, turn 13 (named Jorge Lorenzo), with 23 falls; and Austria’s third with 19.

The good news for Dorna Sports this 2024 is that it has not had to regret serious injuries to pilots and that, at the same time, the number of falls has been reduced: 865 in the three categories, the lowest figure in the last decade (a exception of the 2020 pandemic, 722, but with only 14 GP). The decrease has been significant, since in recent years there were more than 1,000 crashes per year (1,009 in 2023, 1,106 in 2022). A sign that the circuits are improving, the sanctions are taking effect and the technology anti-fall does its job.

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