Iker Lecuona

Tech 3 KTM rider Iker Lecuona has topped his second MotoGP practice of the year after bettering Jack Miller late on in FP1 at Valencia. Rain began to fall between Moto3 and MotoGP FP1 which led to every rider heading out on wet tyres. As was the case with Alex Rins in Portimao, 2021 MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo was seen using the new shoulder cam around the Ricardo Tormo Circuit. While conditions continued to worsen around the ten minute mark, Miguel Oliveira was able to repeatedly improve his lap time and lead from Ducati’s Miller. Winner last time out, Francesco Bagnaia then jumped to the top of the field with a 1:41.511 – two tenths better than Oliveira, while Danilo Petrucci who is competing in his last MotoGP race went down at turn four whilst following Bagnaia. Bagnaia went on to improve by another two tenths on his next lap around, before he too suffered a crash – turn 2. Despite Petrucci’s crash, the wet conditions were proving beneficial for KTM as Oliveira, Lecuona and Petrucci were all within the top six at FP1’s mid-session point. Valentino Rossi, who will retire following this weekend’s Valencia MotoGP, was one of the last riders to set a flying lap, however, his first few laps weren’t classified due to being outside the seven second margin. Enea Bastianini was the other rider to be in that situation, but that changed for the former Moto2 champion with 12 minutes to go as he went 19th. Bagnaia, who led team-mate Miller for much of the session was then bettered by the Australian who set a first sub 1m 41s lap of the session. Miller’s time was over five tenths quicker than Bagnaia, while Jorge Martin made it three Ducati machines inside the top three with five minutes left. But just like Bagnaia earlier on, Miller crashed at turn one shortly after going quickest. The Ducati rider ran wide at turn one before the painted run-off wiped out the front end of his machine. Luca Marini then made it four Ducati’s at the front before Lecuona went quickest with a 1:40.569s. who has been very impressive in wet conditions since returning from injury at Misano (1), also moved into the top five momentarily, however, the Italian was eventually pushed down to eighth after good laps from Johann Zarco and Joan Mir put them fourth and fifth respectively. VALENCIA MOTOGP, CIRCUIT RICARDO TORMO – FREE PRACTICE (1) RESULTS POS RIDER NAT TEAM TIME/DIFF LAP MAX 1 Iker Lecuona SPA KTM Tech3 (RC16) 1’40.569s 17/19 317k 2 Jack Miller AUS Ducati Team (GP21) +0.155s 11/12 323k 3 Miguel Oliveira POR Red Bull KTM (RC16) +0.161s 19/19 314k 4 Johann Zarco FRA Pramac Ducati (GP21) +0.371s 20/20 320k 5 Joan Mir SPA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) +0.374s 16/17 318k 6 Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati Team (GP21) +0.446s 13/13 321k 7 Luca Marini ITA Sky VR46 Avintia Ducati (GP19)* +0.535s 13/14 315k 8 Franco Morbidelli ITA Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) +0.631s 15/17 314k 9 Pol Espargaro SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) +0.731s 18/19 318k 10 Takaaki Nakagami JPN LCR Honda (RC213V) +0.917s 19/19 315k 11 Alex Rins SPA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) +0.943s 16/16 318k 12 Jorge Martin SPA Pramac Ducati (GP21)* +0.978s 17/18 318k 13 Aleix Espargaro SPA Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) +1.320s 14/14 315k 14 Enea Bastianini ITA Avintia Ducati (GP19)* +1.405s 11/14 317k 15 Fabio Quartararo FRA Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) +1.512s 20/21 315k 16 Alex Marquez SPA LCR Honda (RC213V) +1.589s 16/16 320k 17 Brad Binder RSA Red Bull KTM (RC16) +1.599s 18/19 313k 18 Andrea Dovizioso ITA Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) +1.613s 12/12 308k 19 Danilo Petrucci ITA KTM Tech3 (RC16) +1.869s 6/6 310k 20 Maverick Vinales SPA Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) +2.198s 14/15 321k 21 Valentino Rossi ITA Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) +12.412s 3/4 293k