Why Marquez is crashing less when he should be crashing more

Marc Marquez has started 118 race weekends in his tenure in the MotoGP world championship. And since 2013, the five-time premier class champion has hit the deck at various points across those weekends on a total of 116 occasions.

But the Honda rider is canny. The majority of his tumbles have come during practice sessions as a fairly high-risk way of ensuring he has found the limits of bike and circuit before the crucial moments of a weekend.

In the previous two seasons alone, Marquez fell a total of 50 times. At the halfway stage of the current campaign, his tally stands at a vastly improved total of six.

And that is peculiar, as the nature of the '19 RC213V should arguably have led to more spills than he has so far registered.

Previous incarnations of the RC213V - in particular the 2015, '16 and '17 bikes - suffered under acceleration due to the aggressive nature of the engine, which ultimately forced Honda riders to try to recoup the time they lost exiting turns on the way in to them. This meant they were pushing the front end harder, and ultimately put them closer to the limit.

Honda tried to cure this first by counter-rotating the crankshaft with the 2016 engine, before ditching its long-favoured 'screamer' firing order for the more widely-used 'big bang' set-up in '17. Honda's acceleration woes slowly started to be phased out as a result, with a bigger step being taken last year.

This year, Honda turned towards squeezing enough power out of its engine to rival that of Ducati's explosive Desmodromic motor. It succeeded, with RC213Vs now topping the speed charts regularly, but it came at a cost.

"To finish in the positions he's finishing in, I don't think people understand how hard he's having to ride" Cal Crutchlow on Marc Marquez

The bike has become far harder to turn than its predecessor and aside from Marquez, the other works Honda riders are highlighting this with their results: LCR's Cal Crutchlow has just two podiums to his credit, his only top-five finishes, while Jorge Lorenzo has been unable to crack the top 10.

Marquez - not counting his Austin crash, which was blamed on a "mechanical" issue - has finished in the top two at all races and is 58 points clear in the standings.

But that's not to say he isn't struggling. Crutchlow has been the most vocal about the bike's turning woes, with Marquez admitting at Assen - where those issues were magnified by the circuit's numerous fast turns - he has "very similar" comments to his satellite riding counterpart's.

Crutchlow has also been quick to point out just how good a job Marquez has been doing to defy the Honda's limitations.

"Marc is riding harder and better than what he has before to make it work that he's leading the championship, it's as simple as that," says Crutchlow. "To finish the races in the positions he's finishing in, I don't think people understand how hard he's having to ride to do that. I know you can't see it on TV - but I do it, I ride the bike, so I know how hard he's having to ride the bike."

Indeed, at the Sachsenring Marquez set a new lean angle record when he managed to corner at 66 degrees, and at Mugello he touched 65 at the final left-hand corner of Buccini.

Crutchlow and Lorenzo have also crashed six times this season, and those have generally been front-end spills. But their results pale in comparison to Marquez's, on both Saturdays and Sundays.

So why is he now able to avoid crashing while pushing even harder than he has done before?

If you look at the way Marquez rides, it is otherworldly. It makes a mockery of physics and reason

There are several contributing factors to this. The first goes back to the engine. With the Honda motor now much more friendly when wound up, less aggression is required under braking, and so the front-end is under less stress. This has had the knock-on benefit of Marquez being able to move away from running the harder front tyres to the softer options, which provide much better grip and feeling to allow him to take corners at those ridiculous levels of lean.

The second is down to his genes. Marquez has been open about the inclusion of yoga into his training regime, but he is just naturally flexible.

Speaking after qualifying at Barcelona last year, he said: "One of the strong things about my body is that I have a lot of flexibility, and this is important when you are crashing and doing the saves, and when you are on the bike. But, my brother [Moto2 frontrunner Alex] is doing the same training as me and he doesn't have the [same] flexibility. It's something my mother and my father give to me."

Marquez believes a more thoughtful approach in cornering has also largely helped to reduce his crash tally.

"If you are very concentrated on the bike, you can save many crashes," he said at the Sachsenring last month. "I crash less [this year], but if you count how many saves I did... for that reason I crash less, but I save more. You need to be so concentrated.

"For example in the Montmelo [Barcelona] test - I was not 100% concentrating, I just lost the front and I crashed, because I was not focused enough. This is the way to ride the Honda, to find the limit and to be fastest."

This is something that, in effect, has been instilled into the DNA of the current bike. With Crutchlow out of action with an ankle injury last winter, and Lorenzo completely green to the Honda, development was led by Marquez. Not unlike Casey Stoner's days at Ducati, this has proven detrimental to the bike being competitive in anyone else's hands but those of the reigning champion.

This ultimately leads to the final and main reason he can utilise the above factors to avoid crashing. Statistics are one thing, but if you look at the way he rides, it is otherworldly.

During the Barcelona weekend last year, Marquez tucked the front of his Honda at the fast final corner in FP4, but managed to keep it upright. It was just another entry in a long list of him making a mockery of physics and reason.

Crutchlow has long pointed out that anyone else attempting to do what Marquez does ends up on the deck or in the medical centre. Nowhere was this more evident than at Le Mans, when Marquez lost the front-end at the double right-hander of Garage Vert in practice. He saved the crash and carried on.

Moments later, team-mate Lorenzo - one of this generation's most talented riders - had the exact same moment, but ended up in a bemused heap in the gravel.