After a second round of the season in the MotoGP™ World Championship, Team HRC’s Iker Lecuona will return to the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock for round six at Donington Park. Replacing 2020 World Champion Joan Mir for the Dutch GP, with the Spaniard out injured, Lecuona had a solid weekend with continuous improvements, with only bad luck hampering what would have been a solid points scoring Sunday.
In the Sprint, Lecuona had a decent outing, finishing the race ahead of Stefan Bradl, his fellow Honda substitute – Bradl replaced Alex Rins at LCR Honda – and took the chequered flag in 20th place. However, Sunday’s 26-lap Grand Prix tells a story of what could’ve been for the Valencian. Taking advantage of crashes for riders up ahead of him and keeping a solid pace, he was as high as 12th, but then mechanical gremlins struck, dropping him to P16, before he retired.
Speaking about the race, Lecuona gave his feelings about missing out on points and giving his thoughts on the whole weekend: “Overall, I’m really happy because I improved every race, in every run, with my confidence in the bike and even in the Sprint race, I did it well and fast. I overtook Bradl on the last lap!
“On Sunday morning, I did another step and this afternoon, I did another one. I was in the group, I overtook them and then led the group and I went faster than them. I got to Morbidelli, fighting for the top ten. Thanks to Honda and the team because we worked hard for this second opportunity. It was a pleasure to be here and I’m happy with the job we did.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com