Casadei claims crucial Misano pole as Garzo launches from P8

The Italian – who sits P2 in the title showdown – is joined on the front row by teammate Granado and Torres as Garzo settles for Row 3.

Championship tensions have risen after qualifying at the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini as title race leader, Hector Garzo (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™), gets set to launch from his worst qualifying position of the year in P8 – as chief chaser Mattia Casadei (LCR E-Team) claims a crucial pole position on home turf. The Italian’s teammate, Eric Granado (LCR E-Team), lines up on the front row for the first time since Round 3, as Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team) left it late to pocket a Friday P3.

There was drama earlier in the day as Garzo missed the Q2 cut for the first time in 2024, but the #4 delivered his weekend-best time in Q1 to gain promotion into the pole position shootout. However, Garzo was unable to trouble the front row throughout Q2, as the LCR duo of Casadei and Granado worked in tandem to bag a fantastic qualifying 1-2 for the team as they set their sights on trying to catch and surpass Garzo in Saturday’s races.

The other two contenders who still hold mathematical hopes of winning the 2024 crown, Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar Team) and Oscar Gutierrez (Axxis-MSI), will set off from P5 and P6 respectively in a tightly contested Q2 session that saw the top nine split by less than four tenths.

It sets us up beautifully for a fascinating fight in tomorrow’s races. Garzo heads into the final day 38 points up on Casadei, 44 points ahead of Zannoni and 49 clear of Gutierrez. A P4 – no matter where the chasers finish – in Race 1 will hand Garzo the crown, but from P8, there’s work to do.

Make sure you tune into Race 1 at 12:15 local time (UTC +1), before the curtain closing Race 2 gets going at 16:10 in Misano.

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