Iker Lecuona “not the favourite” for Hungary WorldSBK win despite practice pace

Iker Lecuona feels he is “not the favourite” to take race wins at the Hungarian WorldSBK despite topping both practices on Friday at Balaton Park.

Lecuona was fastest by over 0.1 seconds at Balaton in FP2, ahead of his teammate Nicolo Bulega.

Bulega has won all nine races in World Superbike this season and is on a 13-race win streak at present. Lecuona, on the other hand, has been second in the last six races.

The Spaniard’s speed on Friday was obvious, putting him in the picture to challenge Bulega this weekend. A look at the chronological analysis shows Bulega is arguably more consistent than Lecuona, but the pace is comparable between the two.

Iker Lecuona, though, is sure that he is not the favourite to win despite his Friday performance.

“[I am] one of the favourites, yes, but not the favourite,” he told WorldSBK.com after FP2.

“At the end, it’s racing, we don’t know what [will] happen. 

“What is true is that I’m a bit faster than Nicolo [Bulega], or similar to Nicolo – that is is a good step because he was faster during the first three races, so arrive the fourth one and I’m there. 

“Sam [Lowes] was close to us, so let’s see because also Sam in Assen pushed me so hard in Race 2 so let’s see. 

“One of the favourites? Yes, for sure.”

Lecuona added that his speed on Friday came despite illness that sapped his energy on Thursday.

“I’m happy about the performance,” he said.

“I struggled a little bit physically because yesterday I was very sick, so I need to go to the hotel and try to rest. My energy is not the same as like before, but in any case the feeling with the bike was really good – we did some changes on the bike that worked well. 

“Also the positive point is that my best lap was the last one in FP1 and the last one in FP2 with the same tyre, we didn’t change the tyre and still we are fast. 

“Of course, I used that extra energy to do the lap time, but in any case very happy with the performance. “