Jordi Torres and Kevin Zannoni will have to fight their way up from the fourth and sixth rows of the starting grid

The Power Electronics Aspar Team riders faced a difficult Friday at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. Jordi Torres and Kevin Zannoni were unable to get through Q1, which took place in heavy rain, and tomorrow they will start the last two races of the season from eleventh and seventeenth position respectively on the starting grid. The last pole position in the electric category went to Italian Alessandro Zaccone, who leads the championship by five points over Mattia Casadei. Zaccone will be joined on the front row by Óscar Gutiérrez and Eric Granado, second and third respectively, while Casadei will start fourth. With fifty points up for grabs, the fight for the MotoE title involves up to seven riders with mathematical chances of winning it at the Portuguese round, which will close not only the season but also the era of the electric category in the world championship. 

The first day of the Portuguese Grand Prix was marked by constant changes in weather conditions. This morning's free practice, which took place in dry conditions, was particularly positive for Jordi Torres, who finished in second position. The second session of the electric category, key to fighting for the top positions on the starting grid, was also in dry conditions, although the rain that had fallen previously affected the strategy of the Power Electronics Aspar Team. Both riders took to the track on rain tyres, but with not enough time to change them, they were unable to improve their times and qualify for Q2. In the afternoon, heavy rain in the early minutes of Q1 prevented the riders from handling their bikes with ease. In the final stretch, Torres wanted to return to the top positions and tackled the last lap determined to achieve this. However, a crash while improving his time by half a second put him in third place and prevented him from advancing to Q2, so tomorrow he will start the races from eleventh position. His teammate Kevin Zannoni will be forced to fight his way back from the rear after setting the seventeenth fastest time today.

11th Jordi Torres 1:59.898: “We faced the day with somewhat tricky weather conditions. In the morning, I had a good free practice session, finishing second. We had everything figured out, but then the next session didn't go as planned. We made the mistake of going for a position in Q2 on rain tyres, because it had rained earlier, and in such short practice sessions there isn't enough time to switch to dry tyres. It was a risky decision, because we didn't know if it was going to rain again, and in the end, it was the complete opposite. In the afternoon, in Q1, when we thought it was going to be in dry conditions, it started to rain again. Little by little, I regained my feelings, and on the last lap, when I was improving my time by half a second, I braked too hard and crashed. We've shown that we're competitive in the wet, and that we were also able to do so in the dry this morning. In Portimao, you never know, so tomorrow we'll have to go all out.”

17th Kevin Zannoni 2:04.687: “It’s been a tough day and things haven’t gone as planned. In practice this morning I went out on rain tyres, but the track was dry and I couldn’t get into Q2. In qualifying I had a lot of trouble riding in the wet and couldn’t accelerate easily. Tomorrow we’re starting from the back, so we’ll see how the two remaining races go.”