The sun shining over Montmeló opened the doors for the return of the traditional, single-lap E-Pole format, which saw all the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup riders on track, one by one, aboard their Energica Ego Corsa machines and around the fast ‘Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’. And as it happened already both at Jerez and Le Mans, Eric Granado (One Energy Racing) showed all his outright speed by claiming his sixth pole position in the series.
The talented Brazilian rider logged a 1’50.446secs lap-time which was only 29 thousandths of a second quicker than the one set during Free Practice three. But Granado was not the quickest rider in the morning session, as Fermín Aldeguer (OpenBank Aspar Team) lapped just a little bit quicker in 1’50.399secs, before squandering his chances for pole in his qualifying lap and finishing – surprisingly – only seventh.
The remaining two slots on the front row were claimed by the reigning World Cup Champion Jordi Torres (Pons Racing 40) and by Dominique Aegerter (Dynavolt IntactGP), who really turned his weekend around after a ‘slower-than-usual’ start. Torres, on the other hand, surprised everyone with an incredible performance in the last sector – something extremely important ahead of tomorrow’s seven-lap race getting underway at 16:00 local time (GMT +2).
Row two will be headed by LCR E-Team’s Miquel Pons, who was fourth ahead of Lukas Tulovic (Tech 3 E-Racing) and current series leader Alessandro Zaccone (OCTO Pramac MotoE), who was the first rider to break the 1’51secs barrier in today’s E-Pole. The competition is very tight at the top, as only 0.367 seconds cover the top six.
Behind Aldeguer in seventh, Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse), Matteo Ferrari (Indonesian E-Racing Gresini MotoE) and Xavier Cardelus (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) rounded out the top ten in eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively