Iker Lecuona “almost crashed twice” in thrilling battle at Czech WorldSBK

Iker Lecuona had to settle for a tenth consecutive P2 finish after losing out to team-mate Nicolo Bulega in Race 1 of the Czech WorldSBK.

But that tells very little about how Race 1 actually played out, as Lecuona looked like the heavy favourite with less than seven laps to go. 

After spending the opening few laps behind Barni’s Yari Montella, Lecuona made a decisive pass on the Italian, before hunting down Bulega.

With seven laps to go, Lecuona finally made his move with Bulega seemingly slower at every sector on the track, except sector two. 

Although Lecuona failed to create a gap, the former MotoGP rider looked comfortable until Bulega regained the lead with three laps to go.

Bulega immediately put the hammer down and managed to create a gap, causing Lecuona to push even harder which nearly led to a crash on two occasions.

Speaking after his 17th win in succession, Bulega told WorldSBK.com: “It was a very tough race, Iker was very strong. Honestly, I wasn’t at 100% with the bike. 

“I missed some feeling, especially in the small corners. I had a very small problem with the front brake, and this track is very critical for brakes. 

“We have to check and put it all together for tomorrow. We had a great battle; I enjoyed it a lot. 

“In the last three laps, when I overtook him, I tried to forget the small problems I had, make my pace, be fast and put some gap between me and him.”

While Lecuona was pleased with his performance, he admitted overtaking was difficult because of the equal machinery, adding: “I’m really happy because at least I tried in the race. 

“We had really good pace, much faster than I expected; even Nicolo said we were really, really fast. 

“It was difficult to overtake because we have the same bike, but with different riding styles. 

“The main problem for me is I had to push a bit too much in the first three laps to recover that almost second to Nicolo, and then I struggled in the last few laps with the tyre. 

“I almost crashed twice because I tried to catch Nicolo for the last lap, and on the last lap, I said after almost crashing twice that it’s good to finish second. It’s the first time we battled in the race.”

This was the closest that Lecuona has come to beating Bulega since the pair became team-mates at the start of this season, and the Spaniard is hoping that Sunday’s double-header will finally yield his breakthrough win.

Lecuona said: “Our performance was really good, and the pace surprised us a bit. In Superpole, I expected more but I didn’t do the perfect lap so P3 was good. 

“Tomorrow, we have two more chances to try to beat Nicolo.”