The MotoE 2024 starts this weekend at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal. Jordi Torres is one of the MotoE title favourites after wins in 2020 and 2021 and second place in 2023. Kevin Zannoni debuts alongside him in the colours of the Openbank Aspar Team.
This weekend, the Portuguese Grand Prix opens the 2024 season of MotoE, the sixth since its debut and the second with World Championship status. Three new teams and five new riders make their debut this year while the list of possible favourites for victory in the electric MotoGP class grows. Nine of the top ten finishers from 2023 will return to the start in 2024, including reigning champion Mattia Casadei. The Italian changes the team and starts a new challenge in the LCR team alongside Eric Granado. The first of his rivals will be the standard bearer of the Openbank Aspar Team, Jordi Torres, winner of the MotoE in 2020 and 2021 and runner-up in the last edition. Torres enters 2024 intending to take back the crown of the MotoE. Héctor Garzó, the fastest in the pre-season tests, Matteo Ferrari, Eric Granado and Nicholas Spinelli, will also aim for the title in a season that includes sixteen races in eight weekends and which will end in September on the Misano circuit. Before the season kicks off this Saturday with the first two races, the riders of the electric category of the World Championship will face one final day of testing on the same circuit on Thursday.
Last year, the Openbank Aspar Team, under the leadership of Jordi Torres, achieved two victories and eight podiums, finishing second in the category. With these results, it is clear that Jordi Torres faces his second season with Jorge Martinez's team, starting among the favourites in the fight for the World Championship. The Catalan rider's challenge begins on a circuit where no one has ever raced a Ducati electric V21L. In the tests held in Portimao a month ago, Torres was one of the fastest riders and collected important data in view of the first race. Alongside Torres, a new rider arrives in the Aspar team, the Italian Kevin Zannoni. Zannoni has shown great progression since his debut in the category in 2021 and is ready to take a further step forward this year. The Openbank Aspar Team rider was competitive in all three pre-season days in Portimao and is ready to aim for his first category win.
The Portuguese GP of MotoE begins on Friday, with two free practice sessions and qualifying, Q1 and Q2 style, starting at 16pm local time. The matches will take place on Saturday at 15pm and 12.15pm local time. On Thursday, before the official start of the GP, at the Autodromo do Algarve, the drivers of MotoE will carry out three test sessions.
MotoE World Championship 2024
The news of the MotoE 2024
Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team rider)
“We are back in action this weekend in Portugal, where we already completed a good pre-season test, and we do it with the same objective as last season. We will work tirelessly to be at the front in every Grand Prix where we can, we will try to be consistent and fight every day for the highest possible goal, to reach the end of the season in a good position in the standings."
Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar Team rider)
“The pre-season went very well, we found a good base for the set-up of the bike and we worked very well all three days. Now we have one last day of testing before the weekend, to help us will finish fine-tuning the bike to get to the Grand Prix with the best set up. I feel very fit and I have worked hard during these months of preseason. I can't wait for the first race, because the start is always very exciting. The goal this season is to be competitive in every race and to be on the podium regularly."
MotoE World Championship 2024
The gallery of the MotoE in Portimao
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