Iker Lecuona warns Nicolo Bulega “always finds something” after Cremona WorldSBK romp

Iker Lecuona may have dominated Race 1 at the Italian WorldSBK, but the Spaniard is expecting improvements from Nicolo Bulega on Sunday.

Bulega had only been beaten once in 2026 before Race 1 at Cremona, but the WorldSBK champion elect was soundly beaten in Race 1 at Cremona, losing to Lecuona by over five seconds.

It seems an insurmountable gap for Bulega to make up for Sunday’s two races, but Iker Lecuona thinks the Italian still poses a threat.

“I think Nicolo [Bulega] always finds something,” Lecuona told WorldSBK.com after Race 1.

“Of course, he thinks about the championship, I think to enjoy riding. So, let’s see tomorrow because maybe in Race 2 can change something when Nicolo closes the championship.

“Maybe he tries to push more, but in that case we are there to fight.”

In any case, Lecuona was pleased with his race, in which he felt he had speed with margin for error.

“I knew my pace was very strong, it’s just I needed to stay calm,” he said.

“When I started the race the start was not the best one – honestly, it’s one of the worst I did this year, but at least I could be first in turns one and two that is important.

“Then I put my riding step-by-step –  didn’t push straight away, I think 1m28.9s or something like that the first one, then step-by-step I improved [tenth-by-tenth] until I lost a little bit the front [grip] because the front tyre dropped mid-race. 

“But in that moment I had a gap so I started to ride very comfortable, even with margin to not make any stupid mistake, I want to say – I went even faster. I’m really happy. 

“Thanks to the team because they did a really good job and I did a really good job on the riding. Very happy, honestly, I’m enjoying a lot to ride the bike.”

There was one momentary worry for Lecuona, at least from the outside, as he had a headshake between turns seven and eight around half-distance.

“I picked up a bit too fast the bike with full throttle, so when I did the change of direction [it was] with the wheelie,” he explained.

“The front tyre just touched the ground and then I had a big shaking. But even like that I was very comfortable, I didn’t lose time, it’s just that even to have that moment I have the capacity and the feeling to solve that problem without losing time. 

“So, I’m really happy for that reason because I rode the bike like I wanted, even if I had a small mistake I could recover in a different sector because I had a little bit of a gap in every sector.”