That sweet taste of victory at Cremona proved hard to replicate for Iker Lecuona at the Circuito Estoril. The #7 walked away from the Tissot Estoril weekend with three silver medals, building on a record by claiming his 25th silver of the season. High hopes coming into the weekend following prior Honda HRC successes at the track quickly met the reality of a machine and a teammate operating on a relentless level.
Saturday started with blistering pace, coming just over a tenth and a half shy of a second Tissot Superpole pole position as teammate Nicolo Bulega shattered the circuit record with a 1’33.884s lap. When the lights went out, the #7 made a stunning jump off the line to take P1 into Turn 1. But the glory was short-lived. On the longest start/finish straight on the calendar, Bulega snatched the lead back on the run into Lap 3's first corner. From there, the gap ballooned from half a second on Lap 5 to over two seconds by Lap 10, leaving the Spanish rider nearly four seconds adrift at the checkered flag.
Nicolo also made small mistakes, but he was faster than me all weekend,
Sunday morning brought renewed optimism and a belief that the 10-lap Tissot Superpole Race was there for the taking. Again, the #7 nailed the start and claimed the holeshot into Turn 1, only for Bulega to reclaim the position on Lap 3. This time, a terrifying braking moment ruined the chase. Clamping just a bit too hard on the lever with the wind shoving from the rear and side, the machine's rear wheel bucked violently into the air. "You arrive at around 320km/h down to around 70km/h; sixth gear to first gear, the speed you carry is too much to stop, at least I didn't go into the gravel," Lecuona said of the scare. He managed to claw the gap back to seven tenths, but the win had slipped away.
Race 2 followed a remarkably similar script. Lecuona rocketed off the line for a third holeshot, but Bulega answered right back on Turn 6 of the opening lap. The gap steadily bled outward—half a second by Lap 6, a second and a half by Lap 9—before the winner pulled 4.9s clear at the finish. Lecuona held sub-1’36s pace until Lap 15, seven laps longer than anyone behind him, yet Bulega simply had an extra gear.
Reflecting on a tough weekend and looking ahead, Lecuona admitted the frustration of not recreating his Cremona feeling, noting that two days of testing prior to that round contrasted sharply with learning a new track on this bike at Estoril. "Nicolo also made small mistakes, but he was faster than me all weekend," Lecuona said. With Jerez up next where he admits winning will be difficult, the squad heads back to work to hunt for answers.
