The Qatar Grand Prix featured MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship rider Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) as a replacement rider for BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP’s Alex Marquez. The Spaniard delivered one of his strongest four 2026 MotoGP appearances, landing in the points in both races and even cracking the top ten in Sunday’s Grand Prix. Perhaps what’s most impressive about these results is the fact that Qatar was the final stage of what has been a marathon run of racing weekends; the Spaniard competed across the final two rounds of the WorldSBK season, then clear through the final three Grand Prix of MotoGP’s south Asian tour.
CHARGING UP THE SPRINT RACE ORDER
He eased into his weekend with a P16 in practice as he finished two spots above his fellow WorldSBK replacement rider Jake Dixon (Honda HRC). Lecuona couldn’t quite match the pace of his teammate Fermin Aldeguer, who finished first in the subsequent Q1, with Lecuona fifth-fastest to set up a P15 starting position for both the weekend’s races. Race 1 saw an early red flag as Aldeguer was late on the brakes and collided with Pecco Bagnaia, sending him sprawling and later to the medical centre, where he was ruled unfit with fractures in his right foot. At lights out, Lecuona got to work at once. By Lap 2 he had climbed to P11, past Brazilian Diogo Moreira and Lecuona’s future 2027 BMW competitor Brad Binder on the second lap. His situation again improved on Lap 3 as he passed Aldeguer and Marco Bezzecchi crashed out ahead of them after contact with Marc Marquez at the front of the pack. Lecuona later battled with Moreira, trading the P9 position; however, Lecuona emerged victorious with his second consecutive MotoGP Sprint race finish in the points in P9.
“I LEARNED LOTS OF LITTLE THINGS LIKE MANAGING THE THROTTLE, THAT’S SOMETHING I STRUGGLED TO MANAGE LAST SEASON AGAINST NICOLO”
Lecuona stayed hot on Sunday, starting from P13 after Bagnaia’s unfit and Marini withdrawing from the weekend after suffering from fatigue. Lecuona settled into the Grand Prix slower than the Sprint, biding his time in his same P13 spot until he sprung a move on Moreira for P12 on Lap 7. He held that position through the middle third of the race, but began to push on Lap 12, clocking four consecutive laps below the 1’53.5s mark. He benefited from Brad Binder’s tech issue ahead of him, landing in P11 by Lap 16. Hot on the tail of his teammate Aldeguer, he stalked his countryman until the penultimate Lap 21, when WorldSBK’s #7 moved past to close out Qatar in P10.
Positive results aside, Lecuona is happy to have learned several things about his riding that he wants to apply in 2027. He said: “Honestly, I’m very, very happy with my performance in the Grand Prix. I lost a lot of time early on while I was fighting with Diogo. And later with some other riders when I went wide at Turn 1. My lap times started to drop into the low 1’53s, and I recovered a lot, even towards Di Giannantonio. I’m done physically; I’m very tired but I want to thank the team for giving me so many chances to ride and get to know the new tyres. These last two weekends, I think I’ve come to understand more. I've learned how to stop the bike, manage wheel spin, and manage the tyres during the race. Lots of little things like managing the throttle as well; that’s something I struggled to manage this last season against Nicolo.”
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