Di Meglio storms to wet Austria MotoE win

Full Austrian MotoE race results

Mike Di Meglio has converted pole position into his first MotoE win in a wet Austrian race at the Red Bull Ring to grab the World Cup points lead.

In another new venture into the unknown for the all-electric series, having never had competitive wet weather running with the MotoE machines, Di Meglio battled Xavier Simeon for the lead on the opening lap as all riders gauged grip levels with the Enel Energica bikes following an earlier rain shower.

Inaugural MotoE race winner Niki Tuuli endured a disastrous opening lap by running wide into the gravel at Turn 4, as Brazilian Eric Granado bolted into the lead a lap later at the same corner.

Looking to pull out a lead at the front, Granado’s charge was halted on Lap 3 when he dropped the front of his bike on the wet white line braking at the Turn 3 hairpin.

Granado’s off handed Di Meglio the lead under pressure from Simeon and Hector Garzo.

On the final lap of the five-lap sprint, Garzo wrecked his own chances by drifting wide and slipping off at Turn 4 while in second place. That allowed EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Di Meglio to escape to grab victory ahead of Simeon on the Avintia Esponsorama Racing with Bradley Smith completing the podium for One Energy Racing.

Alex de Angelis grabbed fourth place for Octo Pramac MotoE ahead of Matteo Ferrari by just 0.084s at the finish line with Sete Gibernau taking an impressive sixth place for the Pons squad having started down in 12^th place.

Josh Hook was another rider to surge through the field into seventh place for Pramac ahead of Jesko Raffin (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Niccolo Canepa (LCR E-Team) with Lorenzo Savadori (Gresini) rounding out the top 10.

Kenny Foray could only manage 11^th place for Tech 3 but ahead of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Mattia Casadei (Ongetta SIC58 Squadracorse) as Nicolas Terol (OpenBank Angel Nieto Team) and Tuuli claimed the final points places.