Nicholas Spinelli claimed victory in Portimão in the first race of the MotoE World Championship season. Emotions ran high until the last meters of the race this morning at the Algarve International Circuit, in a fight for the win that involved three riders.
Héctor Garzó (Dynavolt Intact GP) had a strong start, rising to the lead from the second row of the grid, while Spinelli (Tech3 E-racing) settled into second. However, in the opening lap, he was overtaken by Mattia Casadei (LCR E-Team) and his teammate Eric Granado, who hadn’t made a good start from pole position.
On the main straight of the second lap, Granado impressed by moving from third to first. Garzó also lost position to Casadei. However, on the same lap, Granado threw it all away with a crash that took him out of the race. Casadei took advantage to take the lead ahead of Garzó, who was soon overtaken by Spinelli… only to regain the position one lap later.
DISASTER for @ericgranado 👀
— MotoE™ (@MotoEofficial) March 23, 2024
The poleman goes down but thankfully he's okay 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/4oRqCCmcyq
At the start of the fourth lap, Spinelli used the slipstream to pass the two opponents in front of him and take the lead. Garzó moved up to second, swapping places with Casadei. Position changes in the leading group continued, and two laps from the end, Garzó was back in the lead.
On the penultimate lap, disaster struck for Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar) and Alessandro Zaccone (Tech3 E-racing). The Italian was too optimistic in an overtaking attempt, they collided with both falling. The incident was immediately under investigation.
ANOTHER TWIST 🤯
— MotoE™ (@MotoEofficial) March 23, 2024
@AleZacc611 and @jorditorres81 go down with 2 to go 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/NjPYHFZwwK
The battle then unfolded between Garzó, Spinelli, and Casadei. The key overtake occurred at the first corner of the last lap, with Spinelli firmly taking the lead. The Italian then managed to hold onto the position until the end to become the first winner of the season. Garzó finished second, with Casadei rounding out the podium.
SPINELLI WINS RACE 1 🥇
— MotoE™ (@MotoEofficial) March 23, 2024
A flawless performance by the Italian! 👏#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/LGFwNJif2E
Lukas Tulovic (Dynavolt Intact GP) finished fourth ahead of Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar). Chaz Davies (Aruba Cloud MotoE), making his return to competition in his MotoE debut, managed to finish in eighth place in a race where he encountered no major setbacks.
Results: