Lecuona Rejoins Vierge at Honda HRC Team for Final European Test Before Departing for Australia

Like Jerez, we haven’t been too lucky with the weather here. Yesterday was better, but the conditions weren’t ideal with some patches of the track that stayed wet all day, especially in corners 4 and 13, even though the sun came out from midday onwards. That said, we were able to make progress throughout the day. And by the end, we’d found good feeling with the race tyres. We started with a setup not too different from what we used at Jerez to see how it would work at this track, and I struggled a bit at first. We then made some changes to the suspension, and the feeling immediately improved. I’m really happy because we saw that with small adjustments, we were able to adapt the bike setup to a track that has very different characteristics to Jerez. Unfortunately, today we were faced with some rain that stopped and started throughout the day. We decided to make the most of the conditions and carry out some flag-to-flag tests, but then, unfortunately, I crashed at turn 1. I locked the front, and that ended our day. Luckily, it wasn’t a big crash; I’m totally fine and in perfect shape for the final test and the first race in Australia. I can’t wait for the season to start.

As for my foot, I felt a little pain over the first laps but that was also due to the cold. My shoulder and ribs are still a problem though; the shoulder muscle feels very tight, and it was hard to hold on through the left-hand corners. So, I tried my best but couldn’t complete many laps. I’m not overly worried, as this is all related to the muscle rather than the bone, so I have a good chance to be ready for Australia, but I’m frustrated that I haven’t been able to work properly here. I was able to test the suspension, the first time I’ve used Öhlins on a superbike, and I can say I like it. It’s true that I wasn’t pushing enough to really test the rear, but I tried to push a bit more to understand the front and the braking and I like it. Another target is for me to improve my starts, as I tend to lose positions off the line. So, we made maybe twelve exits to try different setups with the electronics and the clutch and try to understand more. I didn’t want to stress the muscle too much though and risk not being ready for Australia, which is of course the target. I’ve already improved a lot over the last week, so I’m confident I can be in good shape for round one. I just need to continue working on my recovery and be patient.