Yannik Grafmüller
Motorcycle Department
Yannik is one of those rare breed who are equally adept on two and four wheels. At MSM, however, his love is entirely for MotoGP.MORE
Thousandth thriller in qualifying of the MotoE in Barcelona! Eric Granado ultimately prevailed on Friday afternoon, beating LCR teammate Mattia Casadei and Tech3 rider Alessandro Zaccone by 0.032 seconds. Lukas Tulovic could not get past tenth place on the grid due to a technical defect in Q2.
This is how the MotoE qualifying went:
The first qualifying segment was dominated by two drivers: Kevin Zannoni and Lukas Tulovic. The former set the session’s best time of 1:48.365 minutes. Both drivers thus secured a place in Q2. Kevin Manfredi, however, missed out on progressing in third place, as did Miquel Pons and Andrea Mantovani, by just under half a second.
Q2 began with a two-and-a-half minute wait before the first riders took to the track. Nobody wanted to give the competition a slipstream on the long start/finish straight. Ultimately, Oscar Gutierrez took pity and was the first to take to the track, whereupon the rest of the MotoE field, who had qualified for Q2, gradually followed.
Mattia Casadei won the first exchange of blows, setting the fastest lap time of 1:48.431 minutes. But it didn’t last long, because Alessandro Zaccone took the lead on the second lap. Casadei immediately countered, but wasn’t quite as fast as his teammate Eric Granado. The Brazilian was on the road in 1:48.215 minutes, 32 thousandths of a second faster than the reigning world champion.
Yellow flags for a crash by Matteo Ferrari prevented any further improvements, meaning that no one could threaten Granado. The LCR rider will start from pole position in the two MotoE races in Barcelona on Saturday (12:15 p.m. & 4:10 p.m.). Teammates Casadei and Zaccone complete the first row.
Fourth place goes to Nicholas Spinelli ahead of Gutierrez and Hector Garzo. Behind him, Jordi Torres, Zannoni and Ferrari form the third row. Lukas Tulovic had to return to the pits at the end of his out lap with a technical defect and was therefore unable to record a lap time. He will therefore start the two races from tenth place.
Falls and incidents:
Matteo Ferrari caused the only crash of the MotoE qualifying in Barcelona at Turn 2. He slid harmlessly over the front.
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