First race with Ducati bikes: Spinelli and Casadei win MotoE race in Portimao

Nicholas Spinelli has started the 2024 MotoE season in the same way he ended the last one: with a victory. He prevailed against Hector Garzo and Mattia Casadei in Race 1 of Portimao. The reigning world champion secured victory in Race 2, while German Lukas Tulovic celebrated his comeback in MotoE this weekend, finishing fifth and sixth. It was the first race on the bikes of the new manufacturer Ducati.

Hector Garzo got off to the best start this weekend, moving into top positions on the way to the first corner from the second row of the grid. Behind him, Nicholas Spinelli and Mattia Casadei lined up first. Eric Granado, who had started from pole, dropped back to fourth place. Over the course of the race, the slipstream on the start-finish straight led to many changes of position in the leading group and a total of seven crashes.

For example, Eric Granado spun his bike in turn 14 while leading on the second lap of the race. A mistake that has happened to the Brazilian more than once in four years of MotoE. On lap 5, Alessandro Zaccone drove into the back of Doopel champion Jordi Torres, taking both of them out of the race in promising positions. The beneficiaries were Lucas Tulovic and Kevin Zannone, who moved up to 5th and 6th place respectively.

At the front, Spinelli took the lead from Hector Garzo out of the slipstream at the start of the last lap. He was able to pull out a small gap through the first few corners, which would last him until the end of the lap.

The result of the 1st MotoE race in Portimao

Position	Driver:in	Team	Time
1	Nicholas Spinelli	Tech3 E-Racing	12:32.726 min
2	Hector Garzo	Dynavolt Intact MotoE	+0.148 s
3	Mattia Casadei	LCR E-Team	+0.252 s
4	Lucas Tulovic	Dynavolt Intact MotoE	+3.403 s
5	Kevin Zannoni	Openbank Aspar Team	+5.150 s
6	Massimo Roccoli	Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse	+6.132 s

Race 2: Penalty for Spinelli, Casadei with late manoeuvre

The structure of the second race was similar: Garzo sprinted to the front from the second row, Granado lost ground from pole and lined up third behind Spinelli. Then drama for the Italian on lap 3: first he took the lead, then he was given a double long lap penalty for parking incorrectly in his starting box. However, he was unable to complete the lap as he crashed a few corners later through his own fault and retired.

Garzo thus took the lead, while Oscar Gutierrez, who was given two outings last season as a reserve driver and was subsequently signed by the new Axxis MSI team, worked his way into the top positions from behind. On the penultimate lap, he even overtook both LCR drivers and was in second place at one point.

At the start of the last lap, however, everything was shaken up again when Mattia Casadei came out of the slipstream to overtake both riders and secure victory. Last year's champion thus took the lead in the overall standings again after the first race. However, his lead over Hector Garzo, who also made an excellent start to the season with two second places, is just one point. Strikingly, all the other world championship candidates that were on the cards before the season, such as Ferrari, Granado, Spinelli, Pons and Torres, have only scored once.

The result of the 2nd MotoE race in Portimao

Position	Driver:in	Team	Time
1	Mattia Casadei	LCR E-Team	12:31.559 min
2	Hector Garzo	Dynavolt Intact MotoE	+0.066 s
3	Oscar Gutierrez	Axxis-MSI	+0.198 s
4	Eric Granado	LCR E-Team	+0.598 s
5	Jordi Torres	Openbank Aspar Team	+0.965 s
6	Lucas Tulovic	Dynavolt Intact MotoE	+1.259 s