4th place in San Marino seals the deal: Hector Garzo is MotoE World Champion 2024

Hector Garzo was crowned world champion at the MotoE season finale in San Marino. In the first race on Saturday afternoon, fourth place was enough for him to beat his closest rival Mattia Casadei. This makes him the fifth champion and the second world champion of the electric series. In the second race, Oscar Gutierrez snatched the double victory from Casadei just before the finish line.

In order to take the world title on Saturday, Hector Garzo had to fight his way up from the third row of the grid, which gave his closest rival for the title - Mattia Casadei - the chance to dominate the race from the front. The Italian won the start, but was overtaken on the third lap by his compatriot Kevin Zannoni, who had already shown up in his rear-view mirror two laps into the race.

Zannoni was able to pull a few metres clear of Casadei and maintain his lead. But on the penultimate lap, he crashed in turn 16 and threw away a race victory he thought was almost certain. In doing so, he also helped Garzo to the title, because even though Casadei moved up to first place, the Spaniard jumped into the top four, which was enough for him to win the title.

"I still can't believe it," said the newly crowned world champion after the race. "It was a really tough day, but I had the faith in myself to overtake as many drivers as possible. I was a bit lucky in the end, even though I feel really sorry for Kevin, because he was leading the race. But this year was just crazy. We were at the front right from the start, so we deserve this."

Garzo has been particularly consistent this season: In 16 races, he collected four wins and five podium finishes.

The result of the 15th MotoE race in Misano

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Mattia Casadei	LCR E-Racing	13:24.775 min
2	Alessandro Zaccone	Tech3 E-Racing	+0.168 s
3	Eric Granado	LCR E-Team	+1.125 s
4	Hector Garzo	Dynavolt Intact MotoE Team	+1.401 s
5	Jordi Torres	Openbank Aspar Team	+1.551 s
6	Matteo Ferrari	Felo Gresini MotoE	+2.868 s

 

Race 2: Gutierrez snatches the double victory from Casadei

Race 2 on Saturday afternoon was much closer. Casadei again won the start, this time ahead of Eric Granado and Oscar Gutierrez, who made up almost three positions on the first corner from sixth place. This group of three was able to pull away from the rest of the field around Kevin Zannoni. While Granado tried to put pressure on his team-mate in the first few laps, Gutierrez initially stayed in the background.

With two laps to go, however, he made his manoeuvres and overtook first Granado and then Casadei, who had dominated the entire weekend in terms of pace. Jordi Torres overtook Zannoni for fourth place, with Ferrari and world champion Garzo behind him.

The result of the 16th MotoE race in Misano

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Oscar Gutierrez	Axxis-MSI	13:29.676 min
2	Mattia Casadei	LCR E-Team	+0.109 s
3	Eric Granado	LCR E-Team	+0.302 s
4	Jordi Torres	Openbank Aspar Team	+1.381 s
5	Kevin Zannone	Openbank Aspar Team	+1.842 s
6	Matteo Ferrari	Felo Gresini MotoE	+1.984 s