Iker Lecuona bemoans “bad luck” after another Nicolo Bulega defeat at French WorldSBK
Iker Lecuona says he had “bad luck” in Race 1 at the French WorldSBK, which was won by Nicolo Bulega after a red flag.
“Bad luck” struck for Iker Lecuona, he says, in Race 1 at the French WorldSBK, in which he tasted yet another defeat to Nicolo Bulega.
Lecuona and Bulega battled at the start of the race and even after Bulega established himself at the front the Spaniard was able to stay within a second of his team-mate.
A red flag was thrown with 12 laps to go, though, for a crash for Tommy Bridewell. On the restart, Lecuona attacked again, but was beaten handily and was three seconds adrift by the finish.
The stoppage was “bad luck” for Lecuona, he feels, because the original race was about to enter the phase where he thinks he has an advantage over Bulega, whose Race 1 win at Magny-Cours was his 24th of the 2026 WorldSBK season.
“Just honestly I need to say I had bad luck with that red flag because it’s true that Nicolo [Bulega] has more with the new tyre at the beginning of the race like always, but like always with used tyres I feel stronger,” Iker Lecuona told WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in France.
“Before the red flag I [posted] my best lap time [and] I recovered almost three-tenths before the last sector. So, for sure maybe it was different things during the first race.
“But in any case I’m happy, he goes very fast because when I see on my dashboard 1m35.2s it’s like ‘Fucking hell’. Was harder than normal because we don’t need to think about the tyre.
“We need to be happy, but still we miss that few tenths with a new tyre; with a used tyre we are there, so we need to understand why, we need to try something, maybe from Cremona we start to move the bike just to have something new and to take the data.
“In any case, thanks to the team, the team did a really good job and let’s see tomorrow.”
Lecuona admitted that a win was not certain without the red flag, but at least the race would’ve been closer, he feels.
“I don’t know if I win or not [without the red flag], but for sure would be more close.
“But the reality is that the red flag arrived, then he pushed a lot. I tried to stop him, honestly, but he had a bit more and he escaped.
“In any case, happy that I could manage the gap with Sam [Lowes] that he is fast on that track and very constant, so it’s not easy to finish in that second place in that case. Happy and let’s see for tomorrow if we can find something.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
