The teams and riders of the 2024 MotoE World Championship completed the three days of pre-season test in Portimao. On the last day, the reigning champion, Mattia Casadei, won a simulated race. The first race of the season is in a month.
Third and final day of the 2024 MotoE test at the Autodromo do Algarve, in Portimao. From Wednesday, 21st, to Friday, 23rd February, the teams competing in the MotoE World Championship had four sessions of 15 minutes each available each day, for a total of around 100-120 laps overall over the three days of testing.
On the first day, the fastest rider was Nicholas Spinelli (Tech3 E-Racing), winner of the last race of 2023 in Misano and a newcomer to the Tech3 team this year. Yesterday, Hector Garzò (Dynavolt IntactGP) lowered Spinelli's time by 7 tenths, setting the best lap of 1:46.916 before rain and wind reached the Portimao track.
Today, despite the track being wet, the first test session was used to conduct a race simulation. More than for the sporting result, the race simulation serves the MotoE teams and riders ahead of the season's first race. The mechanics have the opportunity to test the starting procedure, which for the MotoE is completely different from that of the other categories, as it involves the partial charging of the motorbike on the grid. The riders, in turn, have the opportunity to try the group start and the braking of the first corner, one of the critical moments for the MotoE races due to the motorcycle's weight.
That said, Nicholas Spinelli, Alessandro Zaccone and Kevin Zannoni started from the front row, followed in the second row by Mattia Casadei, Jordi Torres and Hector Garzò, while Eric Granado started from the third row, followed one row away by Matteo Ferrari. Due to the damp track, there were several crashes and mistakes, including that of Nicholas Spinelli, while he was leading the race. It was the reigning world champion, Mattia Casadei, who crossed the finish line first, ahead of teammate Eric Granado and Kevin Manfredi, the latter always among the fastest riders with wet tyres.
Here is the order of arrival of the race simulation of the MotoE 2024
The other three sessions of the day took place on an increasingly drier track, but the conditions were never such as to be able to drop below the time of 1:47, as happened yesterday. Casadei, the fastest rider on track today, set a best time of 1:47.231, three-tenths more than Garzò's yesterday best lap.
In the end, after three days and 12 test sessions, Hector Garzò (Dynavolt Intact GP) leads the overall standings with a time of 1:46.916, ahead of Nicolas Spinelli (Tech3 E-Racing) and the winner of the MotoE 2019 Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE), all three authors of their best times on Thursday. Reigning world champion Mattia Casadei, now with the LCR E-Team, took centre stage today, winning the race simulation and setting the fastest time of the day and the fourth combined fastest time.
Among the rookie riders, the performance of Oscar Gutierrez (Axxis-MTi) was impressive, fifth in the combined standings of the three days, a few tenths behind Garzò.
Behind the Top 5 riders we find Alessandro Zaccone (Tech3 E-Racing), who preceded Granado, while Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar Team), the returning Lukas Tulovic (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Miquel Pons (Axxis-MSi) completed the Top 10. The two-time winner of the MotoE, Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team), is absent from this list, but was trailed by Pons by just a few hundredths.
In addition to discovering the Portimao circuit and, for beginners, the Ducati V21L, the riders of the MotoE tried the new Michelin tyres. At the moment, the details of these tyres are not yet known; Michelin will officially present them at the Portuguese GP. What is certain is that these are tires with a high content of eco-sustainable materials, the values are 49% for the front and 53% for the rear. The rear tyre is also characterized by a particular tread design which symbolizes Michelin's "all-sustainable" strategy and evokes the Vision tyre presented by the French company in 2017.
A further day of testing will take place on 21 March, again in Portimao, before the official start of the 2024 MotoE World Championship at the Portuguese GP, on 22 and 23 March.
In the next few days, we will publish, on Epaddock, insights and interviews on the MotoE 2024 test in Portimao.
The combined times of the three days of the MotoE test in Portimao
These are the teams and riders of the MotoE World Championship 2024:
LCR E-Team: Mattia Casadei – Eric Granado
Felo Gresini MotoE rider: Matteo Ferrari – Alessio Finello
Openbank Aspar team: Jordi Torres – Kevin Zannoni
Tech3 E-Racing: Alessandro Zaccone – Nicholas Spinelli
Dynavolt Intact GP: Lukas Tulovic – Hector Garzò
Ongetta Sic58 Squadra Corse: Kevin Manfredi – Massimo Roccoli
Axxis – MSi: Miquel Pons – Oscar Gutierrez
Klint Forward Racing: Andrea Mantovani – Maria Herrera
Aruba Cloud MotoE: Chaz Davies – Armando Pontone
MotoE World Championship 2024
The gallery of the test in Portimao
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