MotoE: Ferrari Fastest but Casadei to Start from Pole in Misano

Mattia Casadei will start the third MotoE race of the season at Misano from pole position. The Italian rider set a lap time of 1:43.852 and outqualified Xavier Simeon by a tenth of a second.

Matteo Ferrari decided the E-Pole session in his favour with the fastest lap of the day but drops to fourth due to a grid penalty. Eric Granado’s time would have been good enough for second, but the Brazilian was demoted to the back of the grid due to exceeding track limits.

Cup leader Dominique Aegerter struggled to come to form at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli and will start the race from fifth.

Starting in reverse order from the combined practice times, Jakub Kornfeil (WithU Motorsport) was first to set a time in the superpole showdown. His 1:45.753 did not stand at the top for long though and quicker times kept flooding in.

The provisional pole changed hands multiple times and no rider managed to endure in the hot seat.

Cup leader Dominique Aegerter (Dynavolt Intact GP) was on track earlier than he would have like after he ended practice down in 10^th. With a 1:44.206 he narrowly beat leader at the time Niccolo Canepa (LCR E-Team), but he immediately lost out to Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadrocorse) who was next to set a time.

Casadei recorded the first 43 lap of the afternoon and set the first serious marker with a 1:43.852. Xavier Simeon (LCR E-Team) and Lukas Tulovic (Tech 3 E-Racing) slotted in between Casadei and Aegerter, but the Italian remained top until Eric Granado (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) crossed the finish line with 0.220 on his side.

Granado had been setting the pace in the practice sessions on Friday and produced one of the quickest times of the weekend with a 1:43.643. Delight, however, swiftly turned into disaster for the Brazilian when he had the time cancelled due to exceeding track limits and was demoted to the back of the grid.

Matteo Ferrari (Trentino Gresini MotoE) was last to take to the track and proved his blistering practice pace. His 1:43.580 was the fastest lap of the session by a good margin and last year’s champion added another E-Pole to his name.

But despite wrapping up qualifying, Ferrari will not start tomorrow’s race from the front row. Carrying a three-place grid penalty from his coming together with Granado at the Andalucia GP into the weekend, the Italian drops down to fourth in the order.

This means that Casadei bags pole for the race with Simeon and Tulovic completing the front row. Ferrari limited the damage done by the grid penalty and heads the second row from Aegerter and Canepa.

Jordi Torres (Pons Racing 40) was on course for provisional pole before his rear locked and he was flicked up in the air at Turn 14. The Spaniard managed to stay on his bike but lost time and will start the race from seventh. The third row is rounded out by Tommaso Marcon (Tech 3 E-Racing) and Mike di Meglio (EG 0,0 Marc VDS).

Alessandro Zaccone (Trentino Gresini MotoE) heads Row 4 from Niki Tuuli (Avant Ajo MotoE), who returns from injury with a P11 start, and Alejandro Medina (Openbank Aspar Team). Xavi Cardelus (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) qualified 13^th ahead of Maria Herrera (Openbank Aspar Team) and Josh Hook (Octo Pramac MotoE) while Alex de Angelis (Octo Pramac MotoE), Kornfeil and Granado complete the field on Row 6.