Honda announces final Suzuka 8 Hours rider to partner Johann Zarco

Honda has confirmed that Iker Lecuona will return to the Suzuka 8 Hours this year as the third rider of its factory team for the famous Japanese endurance race which will take place on 3 August.

Iker Lecuona will partner MotoGP rider Johann Zarco and HRC veteran and Japanese Superbike star Takumi Takahashi – a six-time Suzuka 8 Hours winner – in the Honda HRC team.

Lecuona has previously appeared at Suzuka in 2022 when he partnered Takahashi and Tetusta Nagashima as the factory Honda team took victory on that occasion.

The Spaniard was originally set to return in 2023, but was instead called up to replace Alex Rins, who had been injured at the Italian Grand Prix, at the LCR Honda team in MotoGP.

Lecuona’s return comes amid uncertainty over his WorldSBK future. The former MotoGP rider’s entire World Superbike career so far has been with HRC, but he’s out of contract at the end of this year and there are rumours linking both Alvaro Bautista and Jack Miller to HRC’s production derivative programme.

Lecuona has taken part in pre-event tests at Suzuka this week on 18–19 June, just a few days after the Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK where he recorded a best finish of sixth in Race 2.

Honda says Lecuona “demonstrated excellent performance, recording top times while strengthening communication with the team,” during the test.

Honda HRC MotoGP rider Luca Marini was originally planned to be the third rider on the team for this year’s race alongside Zarco and Takahashi, but he crashed in testing at the end of May, sustaining multiple injuries that have kept him out of the most recent grand prix in Aragon and this weekend’s Italian MotoGP, where he is being replaced by Takaaki Nakagami.