Tuuli Takes Inaugural MotoE Win in Germany
If the first MotoE race wasn’t much more exciting than yesterday’s German MotoGP, at least it was mercifully short, at just seven laps. Almost seven laps. Seen live, you might miss the sound of those mighty ICE engines. Seen on TV, you really can barely hear the bikes above the yammering of the commentators anyway – but now and then the eerie electric whine of the Energicas comes through in the video, and it’s strangely not half bad.
MotoGP has magnanimously posted a free 3:46 video of the action here.
Niki Tuuli, of Finland, won the race and turned the best lap time – 1:28.322 seconds on lap five. Meanwhile in Moto3, Can Oncu turned the fastest lap of the race on his third lap – 1:26.714. In Moto2, Alex Marquez won the race and also turned fast lap – 1:24.317, while his big brother Marc won the main event and turned its fastest lap – 1:21.228.
One-point-six seconds slower than Moto3 doesn’t seem so bad for MotoE’s first race, really, and the spec Energicas weren’t the slowest bikes out there, either. Jack Miller’s Ducati posted the fastest trap speed in MotoGP – 184.4 mph (296.7 kph). Brad Binder’s KTM was the fastest Moto2 bike, at 160 mph (257.6 kph). All the top five Energicas were pulling themselves up to 142 mph (228 kph), while the fastest Moto3 bike – Ai Ogura’s Honda – could only manage 133 mph (214 kph) on the Sachsenring’s longest straight.
Clearly, the Energicas are suffering from a bit of a weight problem, but the electrics really didn’t embarrass themselves at all. I wonder if Valentino Rossi dropped by to say hello to Sete Gibernau? He finished ninth in MotoE. Full results here.
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