A first podium of the season for Lecuona in WorldSBK race 1 at Estoril
Circuito EstorilTeam HRC celebrates its maiden podium of the 2024 WorldSBK season after Iker Lecuona crosses the line third in Race 1 at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal; Vierge a solid P8.
Team HRC celebrates its maiden podium of the 2024 WorldSBK season after Iker Lecuona crosses the line third in Race 1 at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal; Vierge a solid P8.
Saturday’s action got underway with a third and final free practice that ran on a wet track. While Vierge elected to make a few laps to refine the wet setting of his CBR1000RR-R, Lecuona preferred to avoid any unnecessary risks and remain in the garage.
A couple of hours later the SBK field was back on a still wet track for the Superpole qualifying session. During this brief 15-minute phase, during which the rain held off and the wet asphalt began to gradually dry, Xavi soon put in a rapid 1’54.575 which projected him into the top five. The Spaniard may well have further improved on his time but was prevented from doing so after he crashed at Turn 6 with just four minutes left on the clock. His earlier time, which therefore remained his best, meant that he qualified thirteenth for the afternoon’s first race. Iker worked hard to build confidence in the tricky conditions, slowly lowering his references before completing his fastest lap in the final stages. A best of 1’54.678, very similar to his team-mate’s lap time, saw him place right behind Xavi, in fourteenth place, with the Team HCR duo qualifying on the fifth row of the grid.
The weekend’s first 21-lap Superbike race got underway at 2pm CET in very cloudy but dry conditions. Vierge immediately made up positions off the line, placing eleventh at the end of lap one while Lecuona, who had dropped as far as sixteenth during the opening lap, managed to move back into twelfth position in just a few corners. Demonstrating strong pace, Iker was able to climb to seventh and Xavi to P9 by lap six. While Vierge ran a consistent second half of the race to secure P8 today, Lecuona had a little extra. With the bit firmly between his teeth, Iker passed Lowes and engaged in a battle with Rea, overtaking him for fifth position on the very next lap. A mid-race crash for Bautista promoted Lecuona to fourth, the Spaniard immediately setting to work to close in on third-placed rider, Locatelli. Iker was rapidly closing the gap when the Italian suffered an unfortunate incident on lap fifteen. Having moved into third, Iker was determined to defend this position to the line and maintained a half second advantage over Lowes to secure his first podium of the 2024 season.
Team HRC will return to the track on Sunday for the Superpole Race and Superbike Race 2.
A crazy race! I made a good start and was able to pass some riders through the first turns to move in behind Xavi. I almost crashed coming into contact with Rinaldi which caused me to lose ground, but I recovered and was able to pass many riders. I felt very strong and knew I had a good level of performance today, but I still didn’t expect a podium as we didn’t have much dry track time to be able to understand the tyre life. So I tried to save the tyres in some places but also keep the pace. At the end, I thought let’s see if I can catch Locatelli and Bulega and then Andrea made a mistake and I was into P3. I couldn’t relax because I knew Alex (Lowes) was close behind me, but I worked hard to maintain my pace as I really wanted the podium. I’m so happy to have done it; when I got onto pit lane, I started to cry. It’s been a very hard year for me, with many injuries, and at times, I’ve even questioned whether I’m good enough to be here, to be honest. But I've worked hard, listened to all the people around me who are important to me, and race by race, we've been improving and building on our results. I knew the podium was within reach and we’ve finally done it today. I’m so happy and want to thank everyone on HRC and on the Team, my family, my girlfriend, my friends, including my manager, and all those who support me. I’m very happy.
A crazy race! I made a good start and was able to pass some riders through the first turns to move in behind Xavi. I almost crashed coming into contact with Rinaldi which caused me to lose ground, but I recovered and was able to pass many riders. I felt very strong and knew I had a good level of performance today, but I still didn’t expect a podium as we didn’t have much dry track time to be able to understand the tyre life. So I tried to save the tyres in some places but also keep the pace. At the end, I thought let’s see if I can catch Locatelli and Bulega and then Andrea made a mistake and I was into P3. I couldn’t relax because I knew Alex (Lowes) was close behind me, but I worked hard to maintain my pace as I really wanted the podium. I’m so happy to have done it; when I got onto pit lane, I started to cry. It’s been a very hard year for me, with many injuries, and at times, I’ve even questioned whether I’m good enough to be here, to be honest. But I've worked hard, listened to all the people around me who are important to me, and race by race, we've been improving and building on our results. I knew the podium was within reach and we’ve finally done it today. I’m so happy and want to thank everyone on HRC and on the Team, my family, my girlfriend, my friends, including my manager, and all those who support me. I’m very happy.
First I want to congratulate Iker and his team; he did an amazing job and I’m happy for him and for Honda. We’ve been working so hard and are finally seeing results. As for me, I want to start by apologising to the team as I made a mistake in qualifying that prevented us from scoring a good grid position. The conditions were tricky and just as I started to push a little in the last few minutes, I lost the front and crashed. I got back on the bike and was again making a flying lap but then I saw the black flag and realised I should have pitted after my crash. Considering how well we were doing in testing here in August, I thought we had a chance to score a good result in the race today, but instead I felt I had very little rear grip and struggled with that throughout the race. By the last five or six laps the tyre was totally destroyed. We need to understand why and sort this out for tomorrow because the feeling had been good in yesterday’s dry FP2. The goal is to fix that so we can complete two good races tomorrow.
First I want to congratulate Iker and his team; he did an amazing job and I’m happy for him and for Honda. We’ve been working so hard and are finally seeing results. As for me, I want to start by apologising to the team as I made a mistake in qualifying that prevented us from scoring a good grid position. The conditions were tricky and just as I started to push a little in the last few minutes, I lost the front and crashed. I got back on the bike and was again making a flying lap but then I saw the black flag and realised I should have pitted after my crash. Considering how well we were doing in testing here in August, I thought we had a chance to score a good result in the race today, but instead I felt I had very little rear grip and struggled with that throughout the race. By the last five or six laps the tyre was totally destroyed. We need to understand why and sort this out for tomorrow because the feeling had been good in yesterday’s dry FP2. The goal is to fix that so we can complete two good races tomorrow.
