The MotoE title slipped away from Dominique Aegerter on the last day of last season, after a penalty handed the title to Jordi Torres for the second time in a row. However, the Swiss rider started the current campaign with a bang and showed in Italy that he wants to get rid of the thorn in his side.
The Dynavolt Intact rider shone in the weekend’s double-header, winning Saturday’s race and finishing second on Sunday.
In the first round, Aegerter, who started first in the E-Pole, was able to recover from a loss of positions at the start that favored Andrea Mantovani and Matteo Ferrari to take the first places.
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It is worth mentioning that the race had to be shortened to only five laps for safety reasons, so the only possible strategy was to stay ahead and withstand the pressure.
Eric Granado, who had taken the lead, could not maintain his position against Aegerter who believed in the comeback and, after overtaking Mantovani and Ferrari, retook the lead he had earned in qualifying.
Thus, on the last lap, the Swiss was clear that whoever arrived first at the braking of turn 1 had half the race done. He got rid of three riders and increased the pace significantly. This allowed Aegerter to get away enough to tackle the long straight of the transalpine track without losing the first position. Thus, the Swiss was able to win by only 33 thousandths of a second over Ferrari and by two tenths over Mantovani, which allows him to escape in the overall standings.
The Same Players on Sunday
On the second day on Italian soil, Ferrari and Aegerter once again took center stage. The Italian took a decisive lead in the final laps to claim his first victory of the season, while the Swiss rider, fourth on the last lap, moved further ahead in the overall standings with his second place finish.
If on Saturday the competition was reduced to five laps for safety reasons, Sunday was no exception after a chaotic start in which Aegerter did not start as expected and Zannoni took advantage to overtake him. In addition, Mattia Casadei’s crash at the exit of turn one could have complicated things a lot, as his bike remained on the line. Something similar happened with Hikari Okubo, although fortunately there were no major consequences.
For his part, Aegerter began to lose many positions until he was in the middle of the classification, while Ferrari managed to impose itself in the fight for the lead. From there, the Italian began to set a great pace that no one else could follow, allowing him to have a slight but decisive advantage for the victory.
Although the leader remained in the middle of the field for most of the race, he was once again able to pull away and, on the last lap, he put in a spectacular last lap, overtaking three riders to take third place on the Mugello straight. He also took advantage of the breakaway to move up to second place and continue to make his overall lead slip further away.
After the weekend in Italy, Aegerter dominates the standings with 103 points, followed by Granado with 83 and Cassadei with 72.
