Brazilian GP: Why Turn 4 causes so many riders to crash

Saturday, the second day of action for the Brazilian Grand Prix MotoGP The Autódromo Ayrton Senna in Goiânia descended into chaos. Between the bumps, the tarmac subsidence, and the residual water after the week's floods, numerous crashes punctuated most of the sessions in each category.

One of the track's 14 corners, however, has become the drivers' nemesis: Turn 4. In this long, sweeping right-hander alone, 10 crashes have been recorded: 3 during Friday's practice sessions, 3 during Saturday morning's Free Practice 2, and then another flurry of crashes during qualifying with errors in both Q1 and Q2. Even Luca Marini, renowned for his clean racing and having only crashed once in his entire 2025 season, was caught out there in Q1. This proves that the problem goes beyond simple driver skill.

However, the track appeared dry on screen. Friday's showers had cleared, giving way to sunshine. Having been caught out there in Q1, before ultimately recovering and securing a miraculous pole position, Fabio Di Giannantonio explained the reasons for the numerous crashes in that area after his second-place finish in the Sprint.

"There are a lot of bumps, frankly. And that's all over the circuit." he told the press at the end of the day at the Ayrton Senna circuit"You have to be very precise, down to the millimeter. Maybe the biggest one is at turn 4. Where everyone crashes. There's a big bump right when you brake. There are a lot of bumps all along the track, but it's still magnificent. They're just bumps here and there."

A tricky circuit for MotoGP riders

Turn 4 wasn't the only corner to cause accidents, however, as a total of 32 crashes were recorded on Saturday, compared to just 9 on Friday. This can be explained by the fact that the track was made dirty by the torrential rains that hit the region during the first few days of the event.

This hypothesis was confirmed by Johann Zarco when he tried to justify his crash during the 8th lap of the Sprint: “My crash? Raul [Fernández] overtook me, and under braking I was pulled in by him so I didn’t take the inside line. Being on the outside immediately makes you lose the front end. It’s because the track is dirtier outside the racing line.” admitted the Cannes native to the French press after a frustrating Saturday.

The observation is even more striking in Q2, where Marc Márquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martín and Pedro Acosta all went down.

In general, the Goiânia track, completely resurfaced to host MotoGP, was weakened by the repeated downpours of the preceding days. The best example is the hole that appeared on the track due to a subsidence of the asphalt just before the start of Moto3 Qualifying. This incident delayed the start of the MotoGP Sprint by more than an hour while the necessary repairs were carried out.

Some drivers have noticed that the track is sagging in certain places, creating a kind of staircase that makes braking phases tricky.

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