Iker Lecuona penalised “for no reason” at Hungarian WorldSBK

Iker Lecuona says he was penalised “for no reason” at the Hungarian WorldSBK.

Lecuona and Remy Gardner both picked up three-place grid penalties for impeding Sam Lowes in Superpole. Gardner was in Lecuona’s tow when the Spaniard overshot the last chicane, and they both aborted their laps.

Lowes was a few seconds behind them on the track at the time and caught them in the final corner.

Lecuona qualified fifth but started eighth as a result of the penalty, taking seven laps to make his way into second place. By then, he was over four seconds behind Nicolo Bulega and was not able to lap fast enough in the final 15 tours to be able to really challenge for victory.

It was a frustrating timing of the penalty for Lecuona because he had shown pace in practice on Friday that was comparable with that of Bulega, and in the race he was able to get his gap to Bulega to below three seconds between the point at which he got into second place and the finish.

“I lost maybe three seconds or two seconds in the first three or four laps, just to overtake some riders that go quite slow compared to us,” Iker Lecuona said, speaking to WorldSBK.com after the race in Hungary.

“I tried to recover if he made any mistakes, but in the end he did it right, he didn’t make any mistakes, so I recovered just a little bit every lap – not enough time, honestly. 

“Let’s see tomorrow if [starting] P5 I can overtake quite easy and fast in the beginning and I can fight with him in the Superpole Race. If not, finish in the first three positions for Race 2 and fight with him, I think this race will be good.”

Lecuona clearly felt the penalty was unjustified, and he knew it had come at a bad circuit, too, with Balaton already notorious for the challenge it presents for overtaking.

“I’m a bit frustrated, P5 [in Superpole], and I know they make a penalty for no reason, honestly,” he said. “But it is what it is. So, P8.

“I know in that track was quite tricky because I can lose all the race, like last year in the first corner, or many times in the beginning. 

“That luck, that I lose just a few seconds in the first laps, but a bit frustrated because I had the pace to fight with Nicolo [Bulega].”

Even without the penalty, Lecuona’s Superpole performance was below where he would’ve expected it to be, having been on the front two rows at the last two World Superbike rounds.

“In the beginning, quite tricky honestly,” he said. 

“We lost the way in the morning, trying some things on the bike. We changed the bike during FP3, we changed the bike during the [qualifying], but I don’t feel well on the bike, honestly yesterday I felt much better, even with my low energy.”

With this latest factory Ducati 1-2 in World Superbike, Lecuona is now 74 points behind Bulega in the riders’ standings. The Italian took his 14th win in succession in Race 1, but admitted afterwards that he isn’t riding at his best level this weekend.