Spinelli takes top honours in Race 1 as Garzo and Zaccone crash

The FIM Enel MotoE™ World Championship treated the French fans to an incredible Race 1 with Nicholas Spinelli (Tech3 E-Racing) pulling off an unbelievable performance at the Michelin® Grand Prix de France. The Italian continues to add to his win tally, taking victory by over one second from Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar Team) who stormed from 10^th on the grid. There was some exciting action on track in the battle for the podium with Mattia Casadei (LCR E-Team) claiming third.

Once the lights went out Hector Garzo (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™) shot off into the race lead from pole position on the first lap of the race. It was a tense first lap with moves getting made at every opportunity, with Garzo leading from Spinelli in what would be the start of things to come. Further down the grid, Chaz Davies (Aruba Cloud MotoE™ Racing Team), had issues at the race start, dropping down to 18^th at the end of the opening lap.

However, it was nail-biting action at the front on lap two as Spinelli launched an attack, with nothing separating the top 10 riders. Garzo soon battled back until everything unfolded on lap four of the race. Garzo lost the race lead, promoting Spinelli to first before the #4 lost the front at turn three.

Once at the front, Spinelli began to put down the hammer in an attempt to bridge a gap between himself and podium contenders Casadei and Zannoni. The battle for second was truly on with Casadei and Zannoni going head-to-head for the same piece of tarmac, touching elbows with nothing separating them. This allowed the battle for second place to extend to four riders - sending the French crowd to their feet.

Things did not go smoothly for Axxis-MSI’s Miquel Pons, who crashed out of the race on lap two. Massimo Roccoli (Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse) soon crashed and retired from the race before dramatically Alessandro Zaccone (Tech3 E-Racing) crashed at the front after the Italian made contact with Granado – no further action was taken.

Spinelli continued to lead and showed some magnificent pace in the latter stages of the race, with all eyes now turning on the battle behind for the spots on the podium. It all went down to the final lap with Spinelli having an advantage of over one second from Zannoni in second, who pushed to give Casadei no opportunity to pass.

Fourth place goes the way of Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team), missing out on the podium by a mere 0.106s. Andrea Mantovani (KLINT Forward Factory Team) rounded out the top five, beating Eric Granado (LCR E-Team) in sixth after a dramatic race. Oscar Gutierrez (Axxis-MSI) was seventh ahead of both Felo Gresini MotoE™ riders of Matteo Ferrari and Alessio Finello. The final spot inside the top 10 went the way of Kevin Manfredi (Ongetta SIC58 Squadra Corse).

Everything is still up for grabs on Saturday afternoon, so make sure you don’t miss the action from Race 2 at 16:10 local time (UTC +2)!

Top 10:

FULL RESULTS!