Tuuli wins historic first MotoE race after red flag

Full MotoE race results at Sachsenring

Niki Tuuli has made history by becoming the winner of the first-ever MotoE race after it was red-flagged following a crash by Lorenzo Savadori which broke an air fence.

The Finnish rider struggled to get away from pole position, with Bradley Smith bolting into an early led, but having regained his momentum the Ajo MotoE rider charged back up to second place darting in front of Mike Di Meglio.

After trading overtakes with Smith in an intense tussle over the third and fourth laps, Tuuli began to edge away from the One Energy Racing rider to build up a lead before the red flag came out as Savadori tumbled off at Turn 8 with his 260kg Energica bike destroying the air fence which duly forced the race to stop.

With the race result declared at the end of Lap 5, Tuuli claims the victory ahead of Smith with Di Meglio completing the podium.

That meant Hector Garzo narrowly missed out in fourth place for Tech 3 E-racing with Matteo Ferrari in fifth place for TRENTINO Gresini MotoE. Alex de Angelis grabbed sixth place after battling with fellow ex-MotoGP rider Xavier Simeon with Eric Granado fading to eighth place having started on the front row.

Two-time MotoGP world championship runner-up Sete Gibernau capped his return to racing after a decade out with ninth place as Nicolas Terol completed the top 10.