First victory in the MotoE World Cup 2021 for Eric Granado; the Brazilian rider wins the French GP at Le Mans in front of the two Italians Mattia Casadei and Alessandro Zaccone.
The 7-lap race was run on a dry track. During the sightsing lap Miquel Pons and Andrea Mantovani crashed and, therefore, they were unable to take part in the race. After the green linght, everything is ok at the first chicane, with the riders passing without crashes. Alessandro Zaccone makes a great start from the second row, attacking both Aegerter and Ferrari at the braking of turn 3 and exiting turn 4 in first position.
At turn 8 Zaccone misses the braking point, Aegerter immediately takes advantage of it and takes the lead while behind them there are Okubo, Cardelus, Granado, and Ferrari. At the start of the second lap, Okubo attacks Zaccone and passes him at turn 3, gaining the second position. The Japanese rider is not satisfied and also attacks Aegerter at turn 6, conquering the first position. Meanwhile, Fermin Adeguer sets the fastest lap and returns to the leading group.
At the end of the second lap the top 5 positions are: Okubo, Aegerter, Zaccone, Ferrari and Aldeguer. At the braking of turn 3, Aldeguer makes a mistake and hits Okubo's bike; both riders end up on the ground while Granado and Ferrari are forced to slow down so as not to be involved in the fall caused by the Spanish rider.
At this point the group of the top three drivers is composed by Aegerter, Zaccone and Tulovic, with the latter who started from twelfth on the grid.
Five laps to go, Zaccone overtakes Aegerter once again and returns to the top. Behind them, Torres (4th) and Granado (5th) close the gap with the leading group . Immediately behind them there was a good fight between the two Italian riders Ferrari and Casadei (15th in the starting grid).
The group formed by these riders continues compactly until two laps from the end when Granado starts Tulovic's attack at turn 3 and takes the third position. In the fight with Casadei, Ferrari makes a mistake at turn 9 and loses contact with the leading group. At the end of the penultimate lap, it is Aegerter's turn to be attacked and overtaken by Granado.
At the beginning of the last lap Zaccone precedes Granado, Aegerter, Casadei and Torres. Overtaking and counter-overtaking at turn six between the top two riders, with Zaccone holding the lead. Behind them, at turn 7, Aegerter makes a mistake and has to give up the provisional third position to Casadei who resists the Swiss overtaking attempt at the next corner.
At the inlet of the last corner Zaccone tries to protect the trajectory but Granado is faster and enters first at the turn 13. The Italian riders tries a crossing-line manouver at the last corner, he enters in front of Granado but he is then forced to go wide, leaving the space to the Brazilian rider to pass inside and rush to the finish line to seize the first win of the season in MotoE. In the fight for the victory, Zaccone touches the green zone outside the track which is sanctioned with a position in the final standings.
The order of arrival then becomes: Eric Granado, Mattia Casadei and Alessandro Zaccone. Dominique Aegerter and Jordi Torres close the Top 5. For Casadei a historic comeback from fifteenth place on the starting grid.
In the overall standings Alessandro Zaccone leads with 41 points ahead of Mattia Casadei and Dominique Aegerter both at 33. Next round on June 6th in Barcelona.
| POS. | N. | Nat. | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 51 |  |
Eric GRANADO | One Energy Racing | 12,23.012 | |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Mattia CASADEI | Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse | 12,23.318 | 0,306 |
| 3 | 61 | |
Alessandro ZACCONE | OCTO Pramac MotoE | 12,23.265 | 0,253 |
| 4 | 77 |  |
Dominique AEGERTER | Dynavolt Intact GP | 12,23.544 | 0,532 |
| 5 | 40 |  |
Jordi TORRES | Pons Racing 40 | 12,23.652 | 0,640 |
| 6 | 68 |  |
Yonny HERNANDEZ | OCTO Pramac MotoE | 12,23.912 | 0,900 |
| 7 | 3 |  |
Lukas TULOVIC | Tech 3 E-racing | 12,24.057 | 1,045 |
| 8 | 11 | |
Matteo FERRARI | Indonesian E-Racing Gresini MotoE | 12,24.763 | 1,751 |
| 9 | 19 |  |
Corentin PEROLARI | Tech 3 E-racing | 12,27.739 | 4,727 |
| 10 | 6 | |
Maria HERRERA | Openbank Aspar Team | 12,28.011 | 4,999 |
| 11 | 21 | |
Kevin ZANNONI | LCR E-Team | 12,38.521 | 15,509 |
| 12 | 14 |  |
Andre PIRES | Avintia Esponsorama Team | 12,52.362 | 29,350 |
| 13 | 18 |  |
Xavier CARDELUS | Avintia Esponsorama Team | 12,52.497 | 29,485 |
| 14 | 80 |  |
Jasper IWEMA | Pons Racing 40 | 13,00.431 | 37,419 |
| 15 | 54 | |
Fermin ALDEGUER | Openbank Aspar Team | 13,29.927 | 1,069 |
| nd | 78 |  |
Hikari OKUBO | Avant Ajo MotoE | nd | 0,000 |
| nd | 71 | |
Miquel PONS | LCR E-Team | nd | 0,000 |
| nd | 9 | |
Andrea MANTOVANI | Indonesian E-Racing Gresini MotoE | nd | 0,000 |
MotoE World Cup 2021
The gallery of the French GP of the MotoE 2021
MotoE World Cup 2021
All the news of the MotoE 2021
To be updated on MotoE World Cup, subscribe to Epaddock's Whatsapp broadcast and receive all our news on your mobile phone in real time: find out how here.
