MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

MotoE’s second race of the day brought some well-deserved vindication for Alessandro Zaccone, the poleman ending a three-year wait for victory with a dominating display on Saturday afternoon in Assen. It initially looked like a possible repeat of Race 1, as Kevin Zannoni replicated his perfect start to once again take the lead on the opening lap, but this time Zaccone retaliated to claim prime position by turn 10. Race 1 victor Hector Garzo kept close to the duo, with Jordi Torres and Eric Granado joining them in the top five on the first lap, while Mattia Casadei dropped to 7^th and was soon under fire from rookie Oscar Gutierrez. Two of the usual contenders abandoned the top 10 over the next couple of laps, first Nicholas Spinelli adding a second DNF to his day and then Granado dropping to the bottom of the top 15 after serving a long lap penalty for his contribution to the incident with Zannoni earlier today. 

Back at the front, a rapid second lap handed Zaccone an advantage of nearly two seconds over his chasers, also helped slightly by exchanges between Garzo and Zannoni, but the duo could not keep up even after they settled the score and the gap to the leader continued to grow. If Garzo and Zannoni were the main threat initially, the duo found themselves off the podium by lap 5, when Torres and Gutierrez attacked them, but only the rookie made it stick and took over the pursuit one lap later, going on to secure second place. Garzo saw an opportunity to retaliate on Torres soon after and teammate Lukas Tulovic quickly followed his example, the German rider briefly into the podium places when his teammate was penalised with dropping one position, but Garzo immediately reclaimed third, demoting Tulovic back to 4^th. Torres settled for a top five, with Zannoni fading to 6^th and then dropping another position for exceeding track limits on the final lap, promoting Miquel Pons into 6^th. Casadei finished a tame 8^th place and Granado recovered to a lowly 12^th after serving his long lap penalty. 

The somewhat surprising podium tightened up the championship battle, Casadei now leading by 3 points over Zannoni, with Gutierrez only 7 points back and Garzo on an 11-point deficit. Victor Zannone also recovers ground, 21 points behind the leader. 

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