Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Iker Lecuona continued his second-place streak throughout the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round weekend. While he was showing signs of frustration at the Misano World Circuit "Marco Simoncelli" at not being able to beat his teammate Nicolo Bulega, his consistency in this 2026 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season, compared to prior years, has been impressive.
BULEGA UNASSAILABLE ON SATURDAY
The #7 once again took second behind Bulega in the Tissot Superpole session, his time clocked in a hair over a quarter of a second slower than the #11 on Saturday morning. The Valencian brought the fight to his teammate early in Race 1, stealing the holeshot away from ‘Bulegas’ and leading the race until the Italian outbraked him into the “Quercia” Turn 8 later in the opening lap. Bulega hightailed it to more than a one-second gap by Lap 5, and nearly four seconds by Lap 10 as the Italian brought out every tool in his arsenal at his home circuit. Lecuona finished six seconds behind Bulega in P1, but his own pace was sensational as well, as he finished nearly eight seconds clear of Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) in P3.
“I CAN’T FIND THE TWO TENTHS NICOLO HAS”
Sunday brought with it two more chances to rain on the #11’s home round revelry, and Lecuona took his shot at the Championship leader in the morning’s Tissot Superpole Race. The Spaniard was able to overall stay closer to the Italian, both preventing him from jumping out to a large margin as early, and limiting his overall gap to a final margin of just over 1.1s By Lap 3, he was still prowling behind Bulega under half a second behind him; but Bulega’s Lap 4 1’31.9s time – the only rider to set a race lap in the 1’31s range all weekend – was the beginning of the #11’s escape as he went on to leave Lecuona in P2.
Closing out the round, it all came down to Sunday’s Race 2, where again, Lecuona had the better launch and took the holeshot from the #11. Bulega again made it past his teammate at Turn 8, but not willing to roll over, Lecuona cut back inside of him at Turn 9, leading on the charge down into the famous “Curvone” Turn 11, where, unfortunately for the #7, Bulega held a tighter line and sailed past him. From there, several times, Lecuona had trouble keeping a tight line on the high-speed Turn 11, touching the green repeatedly and leaving him reorienting himself to focus on protecting P2 rather than charging for P1, leaving Bulega on his way to another emphatic win with a gap of more than five seconds.
On his Sunday at his manufacturer’s home round, Lecuona said: “Sunday was a bit better than Saturday, in the morning we took a lot of risks with the bike setup, something we never do. In the Superpole Race, I felt like I found something on the bike. I finished just 1.1s short of Nicolo, not bad really. It felt like we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but the reality is that in the third sector in Race 2, I was out on the green maybe seven or eight times, so I had to roll off to avoid a penalty. I later went very wide on Turn 13; I was trying from there to just hold off the guys behind me, like Yari. I need to be happy on one side because we took an extra four points on Yari; now my gap is more than two entire weekends ahead of him. I’m happy about that and happy for the team, given that we're 1-2. I’m frustrated personally because I couldn’t find those two tenths that Nicolo has in his pocket. In Aragon, I was happy, but here I'm not, because I’m very far from P1. I struggled all weekend.”
“HE’S GOING THREE, FOUR, FIVE TENTHS FASTER THAN ME”
What is frustrating the Spaniard isn’t his 18-race P2 streak without a win – a standing WorldSBK record – instead, what is getting his goat is the fact that on the same machinery, the #7 was neck and neck with the Italian at Aragon, but here at Misano, Bulega had his number and finished seconds clear of him. A silver lining for Lecuona is the consistency he is enjoying; he is happy to be on the podium, and the lack of crashes caused by mistakes has been unprecedented in his five-year WorldSBK career. This may be a product of an older, more composed #7, Iker is without a race crash this season after seven rounds, something he’s never accomplished before in WorldSBK.
On how his trio of results are sitting with him, Lecuona said: “Of course, I should be happy because everyone wants to be on the podium, but I’m unhappy not for the position, but for the gap ahead of me to P1. Of course, in Race 2, it had to do with me running wide, and from there focusing on managing my gap to the rear instead of pushing, but even without that, he is managing to go 3, 4, 5 seconds faster than I am in the race. I was happy to fight with him all race at Aragon, but here I was fighting to be second. It isn’t frustrating to be finishing second; it’s frustrating to finish far from your teammate.”
Lecuona returns to Donington Park on July 10th! Tune in Live or enjoy the entire season and past seasons OnDemand with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 50% off!