There was plenty of excitement and anticipation ahead of the penultimate race of the season, and those feelings usually come hand in hand with pressure, especially when a title is on the line. And pressure may have come into play when it mattered most. But one thing is for sure: Dominique Aegerter (Dynavolt IntactGP) became the 2022 FIM Enel MotoE World Cup Champion today after crossing the line in second place at the end of a thrilling, eight-lap encounter. The 31-year-old Swiss rider was finally able to achieve his long-awaited ultimate goal after two very near misses in the past couple of seasons.
On the other side of the coin, outcome-wise, LCR E-Team’s Eric Granado saw his title dreams shatter at the “Carro” corner on lap four as he crashed out of second place. The Brazilian rider was still able to jump back on his Energica Ego Corsa machine but, given his already significant 17.5-point gap from the top entering the round, only a time machine could have changed his fate.
Following Granado’s early exit, the race saw a four-way battle between Mattia Casadei (Pons Racing 40), Aegerter, Matteo Ferrari (FELO Gresini Racing) and Casadei’s teammate Jordi Torres, who stormed over the finishing line in that same order. In light of today’s results, the battle for third place in the final standings sees 2019 title winner Ferrari left with just a 1.5-point margin over today’s race winner, while Miquél Pons’s hopes for a top-three in the season have taken a serious blow as the LCR E-Team’s rider also crashed out of the encounter.
Rookie Alex Escrig (Tech 3 E-Racing) edged out Niccolò Canepa (WithU GRT RNF MotoE) and Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE) for fourth place, with Kevin Manfredi (OCTO Pramac MotoE), Xavi Cardelus (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) and Hector Garzó (Tech 3 E-Racing) completing the top ten.
The final MotoE race of the Energica era will get underway tomorrow at 15:30 local time (GMT +2), with official test rider Alessandro Brannetti heading out on track onboard an Ego Corsa Black Test machine alongside the official MotoE™ Safety Car before the start of the encounter.