Austrian GP of the MotoE - Eric Granado also wins race 2 at the Red Bull Ring ahead of teammate Miquel Pons and Dominique Aegerter. On the Austrian circuit, the Brazilian rider gets his fifth victory of the season in MotoE and recovers more points in the overall standings for the fight for the title.
On the Red Bull Ring circuit, Eric Granado (LCR E-team) won race 2 of the Austrian GP of the MotoE World Cup 2022, after finishing first also in Race 1 on Saturday. The Brazilian rider arrived first at the finish line followed by teammate Miquel Pons and the leader of the general classification Dominique Aegerter (Dynavolt Intact GP).
Granado thus obtained his fifth victory of the season in MotoE while the LCR team achieved, for the second time, the first and second place in the race. The race was originally scheduled for a distance of six laps but was extended to seven after checking the residual energy of the batteries after the free sessions. Bradley Smith and Alessio Finello did not start the race due to injuries reported respectively in race 1 and in free practice on Friday.
At the start, in a beautiful audience frame on the grandstands, Casadei conquers the lead of the group starting from pole position. At Turn 1, Casadei is followed by Ferrari, Granado, Zannoni, Pons, and Aegerter. Problems on the starting grid for Xavi Fores who is forced to return to the pits.
At the braking of the first chicane, Pons immediately attacks Zannoni and passes fourth; the Italian rider responds in the following braking triggering a series of overtaking and counter-overtaking with Granado, Pons and Aegerter.
In the fight with the Italian and the Spaniard, Aegerter risks hitting the LCR rider and crashing, and at the end he finds himself sixth, at the bottom of the leading group. Up front, Casadei tries to create a gap, distancing Ferrari by 0,7 seconds which in turn has a 0,7 second advantage over Granado, Zannoni, Pons and Aegerter.
At the start of the second lap, Pons passes Zannoni at turn 1; now the Sic58 rider is behind Aegerter, who watches Granado, his main rival in the standings, catch up on Ferrari. At the braking of turn 3, Aegerter passes Zannoni and finds himself two positions behind the LCR team rider.
The third lap begins with Casadei leading the race, followed in order by Ferrari, Granado, Pons, Aegerter, Cardelus, Garzò, Zannoni, Okubo, and Canepa. Casadei still has 0,7 sec of advantage gained in the first lap but now behind him there is a group of four riders led by Granado, who overtook Ferrari at turn 1. Meanwhile, in the second group, Okubo is the author of a good comeback from 12th place on the starting grid to 7th place at the middle of the race.
With four laps to go, Granado is the author of a fast lap that allows him to get behind Casadei while behind him, Ferrari, Pons and Aegerter fight for third position. Half a lap is enough for the Brazilian rider to attack Casadei at turn 6 and take the lead in the race. Aegerter was also the author of an overtaking, this time against Ferrari, for fourth place. At the chicane it is the turn of the FELO Gresini MotoE team rider to overtake Aegerter but the Swiss does not give up and overtakes Ferrari in the next braking of turn 3.
Granado meanwhile, after passing Casadei, gains 0,4 sec on the Italian rider who is chased by Granado's teammate, Miquel Pons, Dominique Aegerter, and Matteo Ferrari. Behind them, separated by 1,6 sec, we find Cardelus, Okubo, Garzò, Escrig, and Zannoni.
The penultimate lap starts with a mistake by Aegerter at turn 1; the Swiss rider arrives wide in braking but manages to get back on track in front of Ferrari, without losing positions. In the meantime, Casadei managed to close the gap with Granado and is closely studying the Brazilian rider, preparing the attack on the last lap.
The first attempt to overtake arrives at the passage on the main straight in the last lap but Granado resists and enters first into corner 1. Casadei prepares the next attack but leaves room for Pons who joins and overtakes him at the braking of corner 4. The Italian rider of the Pons Racing 40 team responds to the attack at turn 5 but Pons is in favor of trajectory in the next corner and conquers the second position.
In the front, Granado takes advantage of the fight behind him and earns very important tenths in view of the finish line. By now Granado is uncatchable for everyone while in third position Casadei decides to defend the third position instead of going to Pons' attack. The too defensive trajectory of the Italian rider at the penultimate corner allows Aegerter to cross the trajectory and overtake Casadei at the inlet to the last corner, entering the final straight in third position.
Under the checkered flag then pass in order: Granado, Pons, Aegerter, Casadei and Ferrari. The latter, however, is penalized by four positions for having exceeded the track limits; fifth then becomes the rookie Alex Escrig while Ferrari drops to ninth position.
In the general classification, Granado recovers another nine points in addition to the five in race 1. The Championship leader remains Dominique Aegerter with 194 points but his advantage over Granado drops to 17.5 points. Now Ferrai, Pons and Casadei are out of the fight for the world title. The next and last round of the MotoE is in two weeks in Misano, for the two races of the San Marino GP.
The results of Race 2 of the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring
| POS. | N. | Nat. | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 51 |  |
Eric GRANADO | LCR E-Team | 11,54.464 | |
| 2 | 71 |  |
Miquel PONS | LCR E-Team | 11,54.712 | 0,248 |
| 3 | 77 |  |
Dominique AEGERTER | Dynavolt Intact GP | 11,54.892 | 0,428 |
| 4 | 27 |  |
Mattia CASADEI | Pons Racing 40 | 11,54.946 | 0,482 |
| 5 | 17 | |
Alex ESCRIG | Tech 3 E-racing | 11,57.105 | 2,641 |
| 6 | 18 |  |
Xavier CARDELUS | Avintia Esponsorama Team | 11,57.233 | 2,769 |
| 7 | 78 |  |
Hikari OKUBO | Avant Ajo MotoE | 11,57.546 | 3,082 |
| 8 | 4 | |
Hector GARZO | Tech3 E-Racing | 11,57.775 | 3,311 |
| 9 | 11 | |
Matteo FERRARI | FELO Gresini MotoE | 11,58.416 | 3,952 |
| 10 | 40 | |
Jordi TORRES | Pons Racing 40 | 11,58.919 | 4,455 |
| 11 | 34 | |
Kevin MANFREDI | OCTO PRAMAC MotoE | 11,59.933 | 5,469 |
| 12 | 7 | |
Niccolo CANEPA | WithU GRT RNF MotoE Team | 12,00.249 | 5,785 |
| 13 | 21 | |
Kevin ZANNONI | Ongetta Sic58 Squadra Corse | 12,00.998 | 6,534 |
| 14 | 6 | |
Maria HERRERA | Zinia Aspar Team | 12,01.867 | 7,403 |
| 15 | 70 | |
Marc ALCOBA | Zinia Aspar Team | 12,02.375 | 7,911 |
| NC | 12 | |
Xavi FORES | OCTO Pramac MotoE | nd | 0,000 |
Photos: motogp.com
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