The Avant Ajo MotoE rider finishes in sixth position in the first of two races that will take place this weekend in the FIM MotoE World Cup.

The Jerez-Angel Nieto Circuit hosted the first race of the 2022 FIM MotoE World Cup season this Saturday. Hikari Okubo finished in sixth position in the opening race of the weekend, putting in a good performance and opening his points account for 2022.

The 8-lap first race in the electric series this season started at 4:25 PM. Okubo made a clean start from eighth position which allowed him to gain a place early on. He would eventually relinquish the spot again, but continued to be part of the pack closely following the leaders and improving his times lap after lap. After Lap 5, Okubo went on the attack and gained an advantage of more than a second from his closest rival. After incidents at the front of the race, he crossed the finish line just 2.435 seconds behind the leader, claiming sixth position and scoring his first points of the season.

Race 2 takes place at 3:30 PM on Sunday.

Results – Race 1
1. Eric Granado 14:36.988
2. Dominique Aegerter +0.696
3. Matteo Ferrari +1.005
4. Hector Garzo +1.537
5. Jordi Torres +1.697
6. Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE) +2.345

MotoE World Cup Standing 2022
1. Eric Granado 25 points
2. Dominique Aegerter 20 points
3. Matteo Ferrari 16 points
4. Hector Garzo 13 points
5. Jordi Torres 11 points
6. Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE) 10 points

78 HIKARI OKUBO

“Today was not an easy day. I got my best lap during the race, being 0.5 seconds faster than in qualifying, so I could keep up with the group. I didn’t have the chance to overtake, so I remained calm and stayed in the group. We got a bit lucky with the crash in front and a penalty to another rider that gave us the sixth position, so it’s not a bad result for the first race in the Championship. Tomorrow I’ll try to push more, give my best and try to overtake.”