Hard work pays off for Lecuona and Vierge, seventh and twelfth in race 2 at Assen

“Overall, I’m really happy. We woke up to rain and the warm-up was fully wet, but honestly, I felt good. It was my first time riding in the wet with the Öhlins suspension, and I had a positive feeling. Conditions in the Superpole race were very tricky though, and I struggled a lot with the bike—I had zero feeling and finished far back. Still, it was a learning opportunity and I’m sure it will be better next time. Ahead of Race 2, which was dry, we made a small change to the setup to try and improve front tyre life, something I struggled with in the second half of yesterday’s race. Despite starting sixteenth on the grid, I was able to complete a race I’m really pleased with. I made many passes and managed the situation lap by lap. Even when Danilo and Alex passed Van der Mark and pulled away, I stayed calm because I knew I had the pace to catch them. After passing Michael, I got by Danilo and battled with Lowes. I lost that fight, but we were able to catch Toprak and close in a solid seventh place, considering where we started. I’m happy with that and with the work we’ve done in the garage—improving day by day, reacting to setbacks, learning more about the bike and the suspension, and avoiding crashes or big mistakes. That’s the path I want to follow. Thanks to the team for their hard work and support.”

“It was a challenging Sunday for us. Starting Race 2 from eighteenth on the grid and with a long lap penalty to serve certainly didn’t make things easy. We had a good opportunity in the Superpole race in mixed conditions. I pushed from the start to try and overtake as many riders as possible, but I made a small mistake, touching Iker’s rear tyre, which caused me to crash. Unfortunately, while sliding across the track, I hit Tito. I’m really sorry for that, and I apologise to him. Race Direction gave me a penalty and, as if starting from the sixth row wasn’t bad enough, the long lap here in Assen is really long, so basically, I lost my race there. Still, I got a good start, completed the long lap on lap two, and worked to recover as much as possible. Lap by lap, I climbed back up the field, aiming to reach the group fighting for the top six or seven. I got quite close, but the stress I put on the tyres early on caused a significant drop in performance during the final laps and in the end, I finished twelfth. Even so, I want to focus on the positives: our race pace was strong and we made a step forward, showing good speed. Now we need to learn from what happened—we must improve in qualifying and avoid mistakes during the races, though these can happen if you’re always on the limit. Apologies to the team for the crash, but I believe we did a solid job overall, and now we look ahead to the next one.”