{"id":677347,"date":"2026-05-17T20:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677347\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:48:09","slug":"iker-lecuona-sends-warning-to-ducati-team-mate-after-czech-worldsbk-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677347\/","title":{"rendered":"Iker Lecuona sends warning to Ducati team-mate after Czech WorldSBK defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iker Lecuona<\/a> believes his first victory in WorldSBK<\/a> is getting closer after running team-mate Nicolo Bulega<\/a> close in Race 2 at Most.<\/p>\n

While the stat sheet will say that Bulega won all three races and that Lecuona was second on each occasion at the Czech round, the Spaniard was more competitive than in previous events.<\/p>\n

Lecuona\u2019s hattrick of second places at Most means he\u2019s now finished P2 in the last 12 races, all of which have been won by his Ducati team-mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Iker <\/p>\n

Iker Lecuona behind Nicolo Bulega, Czech WorldSBK 2026 Race 2.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold & Goose<\/p>\n

However, Lecuona has warned Bulega that he\u2019s getting closer to that first win, saying \u201che knows it, the team knows it, [and] I know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 2 in Most, Lecuona said: \u201cI\u2019m really happy about my Sunday. We changed the bike for the warm-up, [then] changed the bike a little bit for the sprint race and we changed the bike for race two, to take that risk, because we know that in case the bike does not work well, we have a chance to finish second far from Nicolo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut honestly, we did the opposite of Race 1. Yesterday started well at the beginning and then I struggled in the last five laps, [but] today was the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled a little bit in the beginning with new tyres, but I was close to Nicolo. He escaped a little bit but then I could recover at the end because we re-balanced the bike a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best weekend so far this season. Fighting yesterday with Nicolo, then in the Superpole Race the pace was crazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went under the record for many laps. Even in Race 2 we went under the [previous lap] record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

\u201cNicolo did a really good job, I have to say. So congrats to him. He\u2019s an excellent rider.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win, but I’m happy with my performance. I\u2019m close to him, he knows it, the team knows it, I know it. It\u2019s just [a matter of] time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Most proved to be another race weekend where Bulega ultimately had the upper hand, Lecuona says his performance was better than at other races.<\/p>\n

\"Nicole <\/p>\n

Nicole Bulega, Iker Lecuona, Czech WorldSBK 2026.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Gold & Goose<\/p>\n

Asked if he was frustrated by the continued run of P2 finishers, Lecuona added: \u201cIn Balaton, yes. I finished second but I was a bit frustrated because I expected a bit more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, I finished second but it\u2019s different. Yesterday I fought with Nicolo for a few laps and recovered time. We arrived to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning, I was a bit pissed off because I expected a bit more but I struggled with the bike. But in any case, we went very fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis afternoon I finished second but the race was incredible. There were almost no mistakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to finish second every race sometimes, but in this case my performance has increased. That is the important thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iker Lecuona believes his first victory in WorldSBK is getting closer after running team-mate Nicolo Bulega close in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,324706,586,234256,34827,806,805,803,804,6909,56672,85,113816],"class_list":["post-677347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-autodrom-most-circuit","tag-czech-republic","tag-iker-lecuona","tag-most","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nicolo-bulega","tag-prague","tag-sports","tag-world-superbikes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}