Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) had a strong Friday in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship despite a Turn 10 crash in Free Practice 2 at Balaton Park Circuit. The Spanish star was fourth overall as he produced some excellent times on the opening day of action for the Hungarian Round, comfortably leading Honda’s charge as the only rider for the Japanese manufacturer inside the top ten.

Lecuona's day got off to a decent start in Free Practice 1 as he set a 1’40.779s, lapping around a second off pacesetter Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). Lecuona’s longest run in FP1 was seven laps long, although two were seven or eight seconds off the pace he could do. Of those five representative laps, the fastest was a 1’40.779s and the slowest a 1’41.582s. Two laps were in the 1’40s bracket while the other three were in the 1’41s.

In FP2, Lecuona was unable to do a long run after his session was disrupted by a small crash at Turn 10 although the Spaniard was able to re-join the session after a 10-minute delay while his team worked on his CBR1000RR-R. In total, Lecuona completed nine laps either side of his crash – five before and four after – with the majority in the 1’40s bracket. The quickest was a 1’40.368s while the slowest was a 1’42.297s, although given the sheer number of 1’40s laps, it perhaps wasn’t a representative lap.

Reflecting on his Friday, the Spaniard said: “I’m happy. I didn’t expect this speed. I don’t know if it’s because no one else had any data. For everyone, it was a new track with the Superbike so maybe that helped me to be there. That’s one of the strongest points from when I was a kid, to learn quickly. It’s true that I had a small crash in FP2 almost at the end of the session but the team did a good job repairing the bike, and I jumped back on it. We made some changes, and we went faster with used tyres, so I’m really happy about that. Let’s see what happens tomorrow because, for sure, everyone will improve so we need to still work and understand the weak point of our bike more.”

Expanding on where he wants to improve for Saturday’s action, Lecuona added: “For my style, the track is good. For Honda, depending on the sector, it can be. In some places, like stopping, it’s a good track but we struggle a lot under acceleration. It was a compromise on the bike. We have some ideas to change the bike and improve but I’ve not had time to work with the team properly! On the electronics area, we can improve in a few places, with engine brake to help stop and the bike setup to try to find a bit more grip. This afternoon was really hot and we lose some grip.”

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