Superbike rider Iker Lecuona to replace injured Rins at British MotoGP round
Iker Lecuona will replace Alex Rins in the LCR Honda team for this weekend’s MotoGP Dutch TT. Iker Lecuona will make his third MotoGP race appearance of the season in Assen this weekend aboard the satellite Honda RC213V of the LCR squad, as Alex Rins continues to recover from the broken tibia and fibula he suffered in the MotoGP Sprint at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello earlier this month.
The previous two appearances for Bradl came in place of Marc Marquez at the Grand Prix of the Americas (where Rins, of course, took victory, coincidentally), and as a wildcard for HRC at the Spanish Grand Prix.
It will not be a case of unfamiliar surroundings for Bradl, who rode for the LCR Honda team for three seasons, from 2012 until 2014. Those three seasons were highlighted by a pole position at Laguna Seca in the 2013 US Grand Prix, which preceded the German rider’s solitary premier class podium finish.
Repeating such a silverware-winning performance this weekend is both unlikely and unexpected for Bradl, who has spent much of his time since 2020 filling in for the Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez. The German rider has become Honda’s ‘safe pair of hands’ in recent years, as the Japanese manufacturer’s MotoGP bike has become increasingly difficult to ride, which has been evidenced this year by the sheer number of crashes for HRC riders, and the amount of injuries they have sustained.
In a way, Bradl’s replacement of Alex Rins, and not Joan Mir, is of some surprise, since Bradl is HRC’s official test rider and Mir’s seat lies in the factory team. However, it makes sense for two reasons.
Firstly, Repsol is a Spanish company and has historically preferred to have the factory Honda team it sponsors filled with two Spanish riders; Stefan Bradl is German, while Iker Lecuona, who is replacing Joan Mir, is Spanish.
Secondly, Joan Mir’s hand injury is likely to take less time to heal than Alex Rins’ double leg fracture, and, since Bradl’s official duties amount to testing and commentary – the latter being something which HRC has demonstrated on numerous occasions in the past three-and-a-half years that it can pull him away from as and when it needs to – whereas the aforementioned Lecuona has WorldSBK duties to fulfil for HRC.
Source: visordown
In other news – Toyota reveals a limited edition Raider X with slight cosmetic changes
A new Hilux enters the fold! Totted as a more visually appealing offshoot of the Raider sub-species, the Raider X derivative aims to introduce a bit of aggression and sophistication to the beloved Hilux frame.
It must be said that regarding power and performance, the touched-up Raider offers no improvement over the standard Raider offering. Learn more
