{"id":723301,"date":"2026-06-08T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723301\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:40:11","slug":"iker-lecuona-flashback-in-balaton-motogp-pile-up-i-saw-the-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723301\/","title":{"rendered":"Iker Lecuona flashback in Balaton MotoGP pile-up: \u201cI saw the danger\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iker Lecuona said memories of last year’s nasty WorldSBK accident at Balaton Park immediately came flooding back when he saw Jorge Martin lose control into Turn 1 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard was among the innocent victims of a seven-rider WorldSBK pile-up at the circuit last season, suffering a broken arm in the process.<\/p>\n

Making his Gresini Ducati debut as Alex Marquez’s replacement in the Hungarian MotoGP<\/a>, Lecuona recognised the warning signs early and reacted by pulling in the clutch and slowing dramatically as the incident unfolded ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw Martin did the first bite on the braking, myself and everyone around me braked a lot because we knew some danger is coming,\u201d Lecuona<\/a> explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he had that [shaking] into the corner, on tarmac that was very tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Asked if the incident triggered flashbacks to his WorldSBK crash, Lecuona replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, honestly, for that reason, when I saw the movement from Martin, I braked, pulled the clutch and just stopped the bike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause last year I broke my arm here, not by my fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, for that reason, when I saw that mistake, I feel maybe it’s a red flag. When it wasn\u2019t I knew everyone was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iker <\/p>\n

Iker Lecuona, 2026 Hungarian MotoGP.<\/p>\n

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

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Lecuona completed the opening lap in 13th place before launching an impressive recovery ride.<\/p>\n

The former Tech3 KTM rider moved into the top ten, inherited eighth when Joan Mir crashed, then passed Jack Miller on the final lap to secure seventh place.<\/p>\n

It was Lecuona\u2019s best MotoGP finish since Silverstone 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really good to come back to MotoGP with the top 7. Really, really happy, honestly,\u201d Lecuona grinned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did some overtaking, fighting, I went wide a few more times than I expected, so I lost a lot of time when I needed to catch Miller. But when I arrived to him on the last lap, I knew I needed to overtake!<\/p>\n

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\u201cI’m very grateful for the opportunity, so again, I need to say thanks to Ducati, Gresini and Aruba.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I saw my speed, my potential. We were never in last here, so just thanks to the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iker <\/p>\n

Iker Lecuona, 2026 Hungarian MotoGP.<\/p>\n

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

Brno still unclear<\/p>\n

Lecuona now returns to WorldSBK action at Misano, where he sits second in the championship behind Ducati team-mate Nicolo Bulega.<\/p>\n

Whether he will return to MotoGP duty for the following Brno round depends on Alex Marquez\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don’t know. For now, I need to focus my recovery on the body for Misano [WorldSBK], then let’s see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Alex can come back again. For now, honestly, I don’t know anything [about Brno].<\/p>\n

\u201cI only knew last Monday about coming here, so maybe until the last moment, I won\u2019t know if I go to Brno or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team-mate Fermin Aldeguer was among the riders taken down in Martin\u2019s accident at Turn 1.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iker Lecuona said memories of last year’s nasty WorldSBK accident at Balaton Park immediately came flooding back when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,8455,234256,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-723301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gresini-racing-motogp","tag-iker-lecuona","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723301","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=723301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}