Alessandro Zaccone starts his home races from pole position! The Italian Tech3 rider prevailed in the MotoE qualifying in Mugello ahead of a strong Lukas Tulovic, who initially fought his way through Q1 and finally finished in second place on the grid. Hector Garzo completes the first row. Light rain made for a short Q1 in which fast laps were only possible at the beginning.
This is how the MotoE qualifying in Mugello went:
Q1 began in difficult conditions. While large parts of the track were still bathed in sunshine, light rain began to fall in some sections. Nevertheless, all drivers started the session with slicks. Andrea Mantovani was the fastest in 1:56.594 minutes, with Lukas Tulovic following nine thousandths behind.
During the second flying lap, the rain got heavier and prevented any further improvements until the end of Q1, meaning Mantovani and Tulovic moved into the second qualifying segment. Miquel Pons, on the other hand, narrowly failed to make it through, and Massimo Roccoli, Kevin Manfredi, Jordi Torres and, surprisingly, Barcelona winner Oscar Gutierrez also had to make it to Q1. Maria Herrera, Chaz Davies and Armando Pontone occupy the last three places on the starting grid on Saturday.
Lukas Tulovic leads the MotoE qualifying
By the start of Q2, the short rain shower had already stopped, which meant that slicks could be used again. Sunshine and strong winds quickly dried the asphalt again, but the MotoE riders had to be cautious on the curbs. Tulovic used his knowledge of the track from Q1 and drove the first benchmark time of 1:56.076 minutes.
The German’s best time didn’t last long, however, as Alessandro Zaccone beat it a little later. The Tech3 rider even found more time one minute before the end and set a new MotoE lap record in Mugello with a time of 1:55.466 minutes. No one could find an answer to that, so pole position goes to Zaccone.
Behind him, Tulovic was able to regain second place, which he had lost in the meantime, and will therefore start from the first row, as will Intact GP teammate Hector Garzo, who finished third. Then come Eric Granado, Mattia Casadei and Kevin Zannoni. Nicholas Spinelli finished seventh, ahead of Matteo Ferrari and Alessio Finello. Mantovani was unable to compete after a fall in Q1, and his damaged bike prevented him from making it into Q2.
Falls and incidents:
Andrea Mantovani caused the first crash of qualifying halfway through Q1. The Italian first lost the front of his Ducati in turn six and then the rear as well. He was then thrown off the track by a heavy highside, but fortunately remained uninjured.