Last year the late drama came from Casadei, this time around the Italian wins from Granado and Zannoni as Ferrari slides out the lead.
Mattia Casadei (HP Pons Los40) has taken victory in MotoE™ Race 1 at the CryptoDATA Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich as title-chasing Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE™) crashed out of the lead on the final lap. Eric Granado (LCR E-Team) and Kevin Zannoni (Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse) completed the first podium of the day in Austria.
Zannoni got the perfect launch from pole and Granado quickly gained a place into P2 at Turn 2A, with Casadei slipping to P3. That soon changed to P2 though for the latter as the Italian carved his way up the inside of Granado at Turn 1 on Lap 2, with Zannoni’s early 0.5s advantage vanishing on the second lap.
The lead changed for the first time at the end of Lap 3 as Casadei shoved his way up to P1 past Zannoni, and the polesitter went P1 to P4 in the blink of an eye as Granado and Ferrari came charging past too. Ferrari then grabbed the lead after Casadei had a rear-end moment on the exit of Turn 8 a lap later.
With two laps to go, Ferrari boasted a 0.6s lead over Casadei with Granado a further six tenths down in P3. The Brazilian was holding Zannoni at bay, while Hector Garzo (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™) fancied a bit of the podium action in P5.
0.6s was Ferrari’s lead heading onto the final lap, Casadei’s gap to P3 had grown to 0.8s, as a fierce three-way fight for P3 unravelled. Then, at Turn 7, drama unfolded. Ferrari was down and out on the final lap while leading, which in turn handed Casadei a somewhat unexpected victory. Granado held off Zannoni and Garzo for second, as the latter misses out on a rostrum by just 0.084s.
Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team) will be counting his lucky stars as a P5 sees his Championship lead extend to 26 points over Ferrari, as Miquel Pons (LCR E-Team) claims P6 despite having a Long Lap penalty to serve from Silverstone. Alessandro Zaccone (Tech3 E-Racing), Mika Perez (RNF MotoE™ Team), Kevin Manfredi (Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse) and Tito Rabat (Prettl Pramac MotoE™) rounded out the top 10.
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