Lecuona a strong fifth and seventh at Portimão, Vierge ninth

“I’m really happy overall with the work we’ve done this weekend. I was expecting to struggle more here to be honest. The team did a good job and we basically kept the same bike setup right from Friday, which is always a very good sign. The Superpole race was a really good one, at one point I thought the podium was possible but then I realized that I needed to cool down on the bike so as not to destroy the tyres. P5 in the end was a very good result, fighting in the group and closing just three seconds from the podium, and also securing a good starting position for Race 2. A starting position that for once I didn’t waste, because I didn’t gain over the first lap but didn’t lose ground either. I was able to ride very fast for several laps, until the first big tyre drop came mid-race, causing me some chattering. I had to manage the situation the best I could, and when Danilo and Dominique caught me, I was able to fend off the latter but not the former. Having said that, we again managed to limit the gap to the front and score a positive P7 that also gives me some good points. I’m very happy and now we have three weeks to re-charge and prepare for the last round of the season in a very positive frame of mind.”

“We’ve finished what has been a very strange weekend with many unexpected events that didn’t really come down to our work or choices. But the good thing is that we were able to react well to each setback and fight back. We worked well in terms of the bike setup, taking another step compared to yesterday, and I was able to finish ninth in the Superpole, so inside the top ten which was our target. Then we adjusted the bike a little more for race 2 but some bad luck quite literally hit us again, when another rider made contact and caused me to crash. I re-joined the race and tried to fight back as much as I could. One point is what it is, but at least I was able to appreciate that the feeling of the bike was better than yesterday, and if I’d had chance to run a ‘normal’ race, I think I could have fought as hard as my teammate, who had a strong weekend. We take the positives anyway, in that we worked well all weekend. Now we will reset and move on to Jerez stronger than ever.”