The WorldSBK season finale at Jerez has immediately presented a severe challenge for Iker Lecuona, who has realistically written off his chances of taking victory in Andalusia following a difficult opening day of running.
Memories of a triple sweep at Cremona back in September already feel distant. That dominant form vanished as the Spaniard struggled to tame his machine against fierce rivals at the southern Spanish venue, battling handling issues right from the opening practice session.
Control of the timesheets was once again seized by Nicolo Bulega, who topped both Friday practices while Lecuona lagged more than two-tenths adrift in third during both sessions, forcing the rider to admit to major struggles.
"Today was a hard day for us in the office, was a very bad feeling on the bike overall. We tried something new in the afternoon also, but we didn’t find a way to feel good at least," Lecuona confessed following the conclusion of FP2.
The primary issue centered around severe tyre degradation in the warmer afternoon conditions, causing immense lap time inconsistency despite a slight improvement in the final run. The engineering crew is currently combing through telemetry data overnight to unlock a viable setup for the remainder of the weekend.
Rather than chasing more victories to cap off his first campaign with Ducati, the focus has entirely shifted towards defending position and securing strong runner-up points against a highly competitive chasing pack.
"I need to be honest and if I’m honest my target is to be second in front of Sam or Surra that they go very fast, also Montella goes always fast here," he concluded regarding his altered weekend objectives.
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