Flawless Ferrari reigns at Misano again

Matteo Ferrari (Trentino Gresini MotoE) kept up his Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup win record with a flawless victory at the Gran Premio Lenovo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. That’s three wins in two years on home soil for the reigning World Cup winner who earns his first win of 2020, a race which saw Xavier Simeon (LCR E-Team) and Dominque Aegerter (Dynavolt Intact GP) complete the podium.

Polesitter Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse) grabbed the holeshot after a great start on home soil and soon got into a good rhythm, with Simeon going around the outside of Lukas Tulovic (Tech3 E-Racing) at Turn 1 and into Turn 2 to grab P2. It was a clean opening sector for everyone but Turn 8 saw Josh Hook (Octo Pramac MotoE) run off track, before numerous riders – including Tulovic – got Turn 13 all sorts of wrong. Tulovic dropped to outside the top 10, with leader Casadei enjoying a half-second advantage on the opening lap.

However, the Italian was soon reeled in by Simeon and the chasing pack. On Lap 2, we had a five-rider battle for the lead. Casadei, Simeon, Ferrari, Jordi Torres (Pons Racing 40) and standings leader Aegerter were about to get into a phenomenal ding-dong MotoE™ battle. Ferrari was past Simeon into Turn 8 after Aegerter had set the fastest lap on Lap 3, with the swapping and changing allowing Mike Di Meglio (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) to catch the group to make it a 12-wheel fight for victory.

And Di Meglio made his move on Aegerter to shove the Swiss rider down to P6 with three laps to go, as Ferrari then closed in on leader Casadei. Lap 5 saw Ferrari get a great run out of Turn 10 and the Italian dived up the inside of Casadei into the rapid right-hander of Turn 11, with Simeon then pouncing on Casadei at Turn 2 with two laps to go. At this point, Ferrari had a half-second lead over the chasing five riders.

Heading onto the last lap, Simeon had closed Ferrari down slightly – the gap was three tenths. In the gaggle, Aegerter had got back past Di Meglio on the penultimate lap and keen to not lose too many points in the title race, the Andalucia GP winner was up the inside of Torres for P4 at Turn 10. Ferrari was holding firm at the front and heading into the tight and technical Turn 14 – an overtaking hotspot – Simeon wasn’t close enough to make a clean lunge. Aegerter, however, was. He had a podium locked on his radar and the number 77 was up the inside of Casadei at Turn 14, with Torres following through.

No one could stop Ferrari from taking the 25-point haul though. A first win of the campaign came the Italian’s way with Simeon crossing the line 0.213 behind – his first MotoE™ podium since Austria 2019. Aegerter’s stunning final lap sees him keep a healthy lead in the standings, with Ferrari moving to within 12 of Aegerter. Torres’ P4 was another great result for the rookie who is now 14 adrift of Aegerter in the standings, with Casadei dropping to P5 from pole and the race lead in the final three laps of the race.

Di Meglio crossed the line in P6 to see the top six finish just 0.7 seconds apart in a truly epic MotoE™ encounter. 3.6 seconds behind the lead battle was another cracking fight, Alessandro Zaccone (Trentino Gresini MotoE) leading those riders over the line for his first points of the season. Alex de Angelis (Octo Pramac MotoE) recovered well to 8th after starting P16, the Sammarinese star less than a tenth shy of Zaccone. Tommaso Marcon (Tech3 E-Racing) beat Eric Granado (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) as the duo rounded out the top 10, the latter doing well to climb into the top 10 after starting from the back of the grid. A title favourite will be hoping to bounce back and be in the victory fight at the double-header at Misano next weekend.

Another awesome MotoE™ race ends with Ferrari on top in Italy. Two races follow next weekend for the Energica Ego Corsa riders, can the Misano king be dethroned?

Top 10:
1. Matteo Ferrari (Trentino Gresini MotoE)
2. Xavier Simeon (LCR E-Team) + 0.213
3. Dominique Aegerter (Dynavolt Intact GP) + 0.372
4. Jordi Torres (Pons Racing 40) + 0.474
5. Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse) + 0.606
6. Mike Di Meglio (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) + 0.780
7. Alessandro Zaccone (Trentino Gresini MotoE) + 4.393
8. Alex de Angelis (OCTO Pramac MotoE) + 4.476
9. Tommasso Marcon (Tech 3 E-Racing) + 4.915
10. Eric Granado (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) + 5.056

Click here for the full results!