Good seventh for Vierge on Friday at Estoril as returning Lecuona quickly readapts to action

The Honda HRC team have made a positive start to the Estoril WorldSBK weekend, completing Friday’s practices in seventh position with Xavi Vierge. A still-recovering Iker Lecuona finished eighteenth, his FP2 performance affected by a crash — fortunately without consequences. The factory team is also supported by official Honda test rider Tetsuta Nagashima, who is competing in this round as a wildcard.

This eleventh Superbike World Championship round got underway on Friday morning, with the field heading out in dry conditions for an initial practice.

It was a strong first outing for Xavi Vierge, who worked his way up the timesheets to close in sixth place. His fastest time, a 1’36.742 set in the final stages, put him just seven tenths from first. Iker Lecuona, passed fit to take part in FP1, took an understandably steady approach as he got back on his CBR1000RR-R for the first time since Balaton Park. Appearing comfortable around the Estoril track, Lecuona made gradual progress, separated from teammate Vierge by just four tenths and placing eleventh at the session’s end (1’37.103).

FP2 saw both Vierge and Lecuona focused on refining the technical setup of their bikes. Xavi built on what was already a very solid performance in FP1, demonstrating confidence in his abilities at this track. He rounded out the day in seventh place overall thanks to an impressive time of 1’36.604. Lecuona suffered a small crash mid-session that prevented him from returning to the track for the second half, though fortunately the factory rider was unhurt in the incident. Having set lap times similar to those of FP1 but not quite able to improve on them, Iker placed eighteenth in the day’s combined standings thanks to his morning’s best reference.

Nagashima also had a constructive day on track, with the Japanese rider rounding out Friday in twenty-third position in the combined standings, with a best of 1’38.414.