Eric Granado eases to MotoE pole for Jerez opener
Eric Granado maintained his dominance of the opening 2020 MotoE World Cup as he secured a comfortable pole position in Jerez.
The Brazilian rider has been the man in form on the Avintia Esponsorama Racing Energica through practice, earning himself the chance to go last in the one lap shootout session.
Though he was made to wait to complete his lap after a spectacular crash for Niccolo Canepa, Granado – third behind champion Matteo Ferrari and Bradley Smith in 2019 - made it look easy on the electric motorcycle to stop the clock at 1m 48.620s.
His last gasp effort denied pole position on his debut for Tech 3’s Lukas Tulovic, the German nonetheless impressing as he earned himself a front row start at the first time of asking.
Fellow Moto2-turned-MotoE rookie Dominique Aegerter was also up there on his debut aboard the Dynavolt Intact GP machine in third place, while reigning champion Ferrari starts fourth.
Alejandro Medina begins from fifth, ahead of Xavier Simeon, Alex de Angelis, Jordi Torres and Niki Tuuli, while Mattia Casadei rounds out the top ten positions.
However, there was disappointment for Canepa who was gunning for the top spot as one of the final riders to hit the track only to lose control into the fast Turn 11 right hander towards the end of the lap.
Echoing a similar crash to befall Alex Rins in the MotoGP class, while Canepa was fortunately OK, the same couldn’t be said for his LCR Energica as it destroyed itself barrelling through the gravel trap and ripping apart.
