Friday saw Honda’s Iker Lecuona return to the Indonesia Circuit that ended his WorldSBK rookie season early last November.
Already battling food poisoning, the Spaniard’s nemesis bit him once again, with a first lap highside through turn 16 in the opening ten minutes of morning practice.
Despite the impact and missing the remainder of FP1, Lecuona returned to action in the humid afternoon in a bid to learn the layout and increase his confidence after missing his debut at Mandalika last year.
A 1’34.452 effort on his penultimate lap left the 23-year-old 17th overall in Friday’s times with a further turn ten off adding insult to injury in the closing stages.
“Soon into FP1, I had a highside through turn 16,” Lecuona confirmed on Friday evening. “Luckily I’m fine, honestly, just feel a bit pain on the right side or on the foot but yeah, I have a lot of luck because the first crash is like last year, massive highside!
“Unexpected for sure because it’s the first crono lap. I go almost four seconds slower compared to the first one because we wait five minutes more compared to other riders to have a better track condition. Also because I need a bit more time because last year here I finished in the hospital. So I need some time to feel well, to have the good feeling on the bike here but cannot happen like this.
“I feel like shit, honestly, after this massive crash on FP1”
“We try to build again the confidence with the bike in FP2,” he continued. “Step by step, alone, trying to do some laps to feel better on the bike and step by step okay, feel a bit better, better. But then when we put the new tyres again, on the third crono I improve the lap time but I have the same crash - luckily the rear don’t catch the grip and I don’t have a high side, is just like I made a 360.
“A small crash but for me mentally is the same - I lose the rear on the entry and I cannot do nothing. I tried to do everything to manage the situation but I can’t so it’s not an easy day. Is one of the worst day, honestly, I did in Superbike.
“I’m also suffering with some gastrointestinal problems over the last couple of days. Anyway, now we need to check the data and understand what happened and what can we do to move forward tomorrow.”
