Eric Granado dominated at Jerez to seal the first victory of the 2020 Moto E world cup season, the Brazilian heading the field by three seconds in just six laps.
Granado-who started the contest from pole- had to work for it initially as he made a poor start, lifting the front wheel of his Energica Ego machine and allowing Lucas Tulovic to snatch the lead on the run to Turn 1.
Granado refused to take it lying down though, charging down the inside of the Tech 3 man at Turn 6 to re-establish himself as leader.
The Avintia man then got his head down and quickly began to build an advantage, posting a fastest lap of the race on lap two that was a full second quicker than anyone else, ultimately taking the chequered flag a few laps later by an untroubled three seconds.
Reigning MotoE champion Matteo Ferrari completed a solid fightback to finish second behind Granado, the Gresini racer passing both Xavier Simeon and Tulovic to take a handy 18 points as he bids to become back-to-back champion.
Dominique Aergeter meanwhile was forced to battle to get back to his third-place starting positon as he too got a poor start, ultimately biding his time and sliding past Tulovic for the position at Turn 6 on the final tour, leaving the disappointed German fourth as the race ended.
Mattia Casadei completed the top five for the SIC58 outfit, the Italian taking advantage of a failed move by Jordi Torres on Alejandro Medina on the final lap to move from seventh to fifth, Torres coming home sixth and Medina seventh.
Simeon struggled for speed during the race and ultimately came home eighth after running well in third early on, while Josh Hook and Alex DeAngelis rounded out the top ten finishers.
Mike DiMeglio had a tough race to finish 11th, the ’19 MotoE Austira winner continuing the struggles he faced towards the end of last season, while testing form-man Niccolo Canepa could only manage a lowly 14th on his LCR-run machine.
