Pons takes maiden victory, drama for Granado

Miquel Pons wins the third MotoE race of the season in Barcelona in front of fans for the first time this year.

The LCR E-Team rider held off Dominique Aegerter and Jordi Torres to take his first win of the season.

It was another disappointing race for pole sitter Eric Granado, who had technical problems on the warm-up lap and was forced to start from the pit lane. The start was delayed as Granado’s team tried to argue his spot on the grid but, once racing got under way, it was Aegerter in the lead.

Pons joined Torres and Alessandro Zaccone in the battle for the lead, the four riders swapping positions at almost every corner.

Pons eventually his way to the front of the group in the closing stages of the race and was able to break away slightly to stop the shuffling positions.

He took the chequered flag 0.531s ahead of Aegerter, who moves to within one point of Zaccone at the top of the championship standings.

Torres completed the podium, ahead of Zaccone and Yonny Hernandez.

Mattia Casadei, who entered the race second in the championship standings, was running P5 until an off on the penultimate lap of the race. He wasn’t the only retirement. Xavier Cardelus ran into the gravel on the opening lap, while Jasper Iwema retired not long after.

Eric Granado had been climbing his way up through the order after his pit lane start, only for a mistake to send him through the gravel on the final lap.

Matteo Ferrari avoided the drama to finish the race sixth on track, but lost one position for gaining an advantage off track. The incident moved rookie Fermin Aldeguer up to P6, his best finish of the season.

Lukas Tulovic, Hikari Okubo and Corentin Perolari completed the top 10.

Image courtesy of MotoGP