MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

A sunny Misano set the stage for the title showdown in the MotoE class, which started quite promising, with defending champion Mattia Casadei starting from pole position, as championship leader Hector Garzo had to defend his lead from his worst qualifying position of the season in 8^th. Things were going Casadei’s way at the start, the Italian keeping the lead ahead of a fast-starting Kevin Zannoni and staying ahead despite Zannoni having a wobbly go at turn four on the second lap. Eric Granado also kept close, as Alessandro Zaccone demoted Jordi Torres to 5^th. Meanwhile, Oscar Gutierrez came immediately under pressure from Garzo for 6^th position, with Nicholas Spinelli, Lukas Tulovic and Matteo Ferrari in the early top 10. 

A leading group of six detached by the end of the second lap, including Casadei, Zannoni, Zaccone, Granado, Torres and Garzo, while Gutierrez led the pursuit half a second back. While the gap was not too concerning initially, a mistake at turn 1 a couple of laps later lost Gutierrez any hopes of closing in on the leaders and dropped him to 10^th, Ferrari taking over the pursuit but over a second behind the top six. 

Garzo joined the top five at the start of lap three and was only one position away from deciding the title, but then Zannoni gave him a helping hand by attacking Casadei for the lead at turn 8 later that lap. Zannoni held onto a three-tenth advantage over the next couple of laps, but Casadei was trying to pick up the pace – both of them receiving track limit warnings in the process. 

The two were separated by a couple of tenths when disaster struck and Zannoni crashed out at the last corner, handing the lead back to Casadei for the final lap. Zaccone kept close to his leading compatriot but ran out of time for a move and settled for second, while Granado and Garzo had dropped out of victory contention in the second half of the race but spent the final lap trading places. Granado resisted for third place on the podium, but Garzo sealed the deal on the big trophy with a fourth position. Behind the new world champion, Torres quietly took 5^th, with Ferrari best of the rest in 6^th position. Tulovic, Gutierrez, Spinelli and Andrea Mantovani completed the top 10. 

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