MotoE had the third round of the 2024 season, in Barcelona. In the two races of the Catalan circuit, the home rider, Oscar Gutierrez, won first and, in race two, Kevin Zannoni. For both, it was the first career victory in MotoE.
Do you know the standings of MotoE after Le Mans? Well, delete everything. The two races in Barcelona have completely changed it, and in a few days, the MotoE will be back on track at Mugello. These are the points of our analysis of the MotoE GP at Barcelona:
1 – Until a few days ago, MotoE seemed, for the first time in its short history, to be a contested championship between two riders while the other title contenders were already detached in the standings. Well, the two races in Barcelona swept away this idea, returning an extremely compact standings. Spinelli and Casadei had won ten times in the last eleven MotoE races, including the last seven in 2023 in the total. On the eve of the Catalan GP, the two races in Barcelona seemed destined to repeat the struggle between the two riders at the top of the standings. Instead, MotoE held true to its character as an unpredictable category, bringing to the top step of the podium two riders who had not yet won: Kevin Zannoni and Oscar Gutierrez.
2 – Let's start with Kevin Zannoni, who, in Barcelona, won Race 2 and took a podium in Race 1, recovered 12 positions in two races, or if you prefer, in 14 laps, and, to top it off, climbed to first place in the overall standings. The 2021-year-old Italian won his first MotoE race after four podiums, crowning a dream that began in XNUMX when he made his MotoE debut in the LCR team. Now Zannoni arrives at the Italian GP at Mugello first in very short standing, with the top three riders bunched within two points.
3 – The other star of the day was Oscar Gutierrez. The Spanish rider is in his first season in MotoE, and in his fifth race, he managed to get a win in a hard-fought and far-from-easy category. After two podiums in the previous two rounds, Gutierrez took advantage of the field effect, playing it all on his home track. In addition to the Spanish rider's talent and determination, the merits of the Axxis-Msi team, a team making its debut in MotoE but made up largely of former members of the Pons Racing team, winner of three out of five editions of MotoE before retiring from MotoGP at the end of 2023, should also be highlighted.
4 – Eric Granado, one of the fastest riders in MotoE, climbs back onto the podium. The Brazilian rider had been missing from the podium since last year's Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring. In Barcelona, Granado took his 2th MotoE pole position; in practice, Granado started from the first grid position on average once every three races. He had a good first race, finishing second behind a wild Gutierrez. Too bad instead for yet another crash in Race 2024, which brings the Brazilian's average in XNUMX to one crash every two races, penalizing him in the overall standings.
5 – Finally, Alessandro Zaccone, the near winner of MotoE in 2021, returns to the MotoE podium. That year, Zaccone was leading the championship with two races to go, but a scary crash in the San Marino GP took him out of the title fight. Now Zaccone is back on the MotoE podium three years after his last time at Assen in 2021, after a 2022 spent competing in MotoE and a 2023 stingy with podiums in MotoE. We will see what the combined effect of this podium finish and Mugello's home track will be on the Team Tech3 rider in the upcoming Italian GP.
6 – It couldn't go on like this. We are talking about Spinelli, the author of the double win at Le Mans and the rookie victory in WorldSBK at Assen. After a period of resounding victories and flawless race conduct, the Tech3 team rider fell twice in the race in Barcelona. Spinelli remains one of the strongest riders in MotoE and one of the most likely to win the championship, but a double zero like the one in Barcelona requires a quick reaction from the Italian rider.
7 – In Barcelona, Casadei lost first place in the championship, but that is not a big deal; he is now second anyway, just one point behind Zannoni. What is most surprising is the overall performance of Casadei, who in Barcelona took sixth place in Race 1 before crashing out in Race 2. Having raced a week earlier just in Barcelona with the Moto2 of the European championship, one would have expected more from the world champion on the Catalan circuit. We will see what happens in a few days at Mugello, where last year Casadei scored third place in Race 1 and a retirement in Race 2.
8 – Matteo Ferrari's period of difficulty continues. The Team Gresini rider continues to navigate in the middle of the standings; in Barcelona, he finished fifth in a row and, after six races, has half the points of Zannoni. Given the unpredictability of MotoE, the championship is still wide open for Ferrari, but the point of no return is approaching. Mugello is already in danger of being the last call for the 2019 MotoE champion.
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MotoE World Championship
The standings of the MotoE 2024
Photos: MotoGP
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