Third row for Baldassarri at MotoE debut in Le Mans, painful setback for Hector Garzo

The start of the first round of the 2025 season in Le Mans went anything but as planned for the Dynavolt Intact GP Team, as reigning World Champion Hector Garzo is out of action with an elbow injury after a heavy crash early this Friday morning. In the first MotoE qualifying session of his career, debutant Lorenzo Baldassarri secured the eighth place on the grid in row three.

The 18 riders in this year's MotoE World Championship started the first day of practice for the French GP at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans in difficult conditions after a previous day of testing on Thursday. With a cool 12 degrees and damp patches after overnight rainfall, the first task was to adapt to the changing grip conditions on the 4.19-kilometre stop-and-go track.

The first practice session had to be abruptly cancelled after only the first ten minutes. The reason: a heavy crash by Hector Garzo, who suffered an extremely painful injury to his right elbow and completely destroyed the Spaniard's Ducati V21L machine. Fortunately, no fracture was discovered at the track's medical centre, but a deep wound directly above the bone had to be treated on site and sutured with four stitches. For the reigning World Champion, this unfortunately meant the end of his first race weekend of the season, but the 26-year-old is confident that he will be fully recovered for the Assen Grand Prix at the end of June and ready to defend his title.

For the Intact GP team, the temporary loss of last year's hopeful is a bitter setback at the start of the season, but with the experienced World Championship rider Lorenzo Baldassarri, the German racing team has another ace up its sleeve. Of course, the all-electronic racing series is new to the Italian, but the 28-year-old knows the pitfalls of the French race track, which helped him to consistently finish in the top 10 despite the difficult conditions. From the first qualifying session, which he finished in ninth place, to Q2, Baldassarri improved by over two seconds to a 1'40.425, which ultimately secured him the eighth place on the grid in row three for the two sprint races on Saturday at 12:15 and 16:10 (CEST).


Results

P1
1. Mattia CASADEI/ ITA – 1'40.794
2. Andrea MANTOVANI/ ITA – 1'41.610 (+0.816)
3. Matteo FERRARI/ ITA – 1'41.640 (+0.846)
6. Hector GARZO/ SPA/ DUCATI – 1'42.051 (+1.257)
9. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'42.547 (+1.753)

P2
1. Mattia CASADEI/ ITA – 1'39.813
2. Eric GRANADO/ BRA – 1'39.883 (+0.070)
3. Jordi TORRES/ SPA – 1'40.181 (+0.368)
7. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'40.533 (+0.720)

Q2
1. Alessandro ZACCONE/ ITA – 1'39.545
2. Eric GRANADO/ BRA – 1'39.554 (+0.009)
3. Oscar GUTIERREZ/ SPA – 1'39.699 (+0.154)
8. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'40.425 (+0.880)