Brazil’s Eric Granado has topped the first ever race simulation on the final day of testing at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia.
MotoE racing action finally kicked off in 2019 with the first race simulation test where riders lined up in their grid slots courtesy of the lap times set in the E-Pole session.
Hector Garzo took pole and lead for a while before Granado timed his move on the final lap to take the win over the pole sitter, whilst Niki Tuuli finished third.
Nico Terol took an impressive fourth place whilst Matteo Ferrari completed the top five onboard his Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse machine.
Bradley Smith was absent from the third and final day as he continues his test duties with Aprilia in MotoGP.
The riders completed the day with a final 30-minute session, but was red flagged due to crashes for Mattia Casadei and Maria Herrera, tho both riders walked away unhurt.
Niki Tuuli topped the final session ahead of the opening round in Sachsenring as the Finnish rider set a lap time of 1:40.127 and was 0.486 seconds faster than next rival Cassadei. Race simulation poleman, Hector Garzo, ended the day third whilst Granado and Mike Di Meglio completed the top five.
Speaking after the MotoE test, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta commented: “It was very good, from the beginning the way we wanted to do it was make races and I think today we showed it was a real race, with all riders competing. I was talking to them and they were very happy. And we’re happy because I think it’s a way to enter this new energy.”
MotoE testing has now officially finished, the next time the Energica machines will be on track is for the opening round of the season at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany which will host the opening round of the inaugural season of the MotoE World Cup from the 5th to the 7th July.
