Iker Lecuona · Biography

The first title of Iker Lecuona Gascón’s career came in 2022, away from the Grand Prix paddock: he won the Suzuka 8 Hours with Honda’s Team HRC, sharing a CBR1000RR-R with Tetsuta Nagashima and Takumi Takahashi. Born in Valencia on 6 January 2000 and nicknamed “El piernas”, Lecuona has raced in Moto2, MotoGP and the Superbike World Championship, where he finished runner-up with Ducati in 2026.

Learning his trade in the CEV

His spell in the European Moto2 Championship, part of the FIM CEV, was short. In 2015 he contested four races on a Suter for the Swiss Junior Team, finishing 18th with 20 points. In 2016, on a Kalex run by Race Experience, he started nine races and finished sixth with 79 points. That same year he reached the world championship sooner than planned.

Moto2: from stand-in to full-timer

In 2016 he joined CarXpert Interwetten to replace the injured Dominique Aegerter, first for two races and then for the rest of the year, without scoring. His 2017 season with Garage Plus Interwetten was defined by injury: he broke his collarbone, ulna and radius in pre-season testing at Jerez, then fractured the collarbone again in France. His first points came with 14th in Malaysia and he ended the year on 2. In 2018 he switched to a KTM with Swiss Innovative Investors, alongside Sam Lowes, and took his first world championship podium: second at the Valencian Community Grand Prix behind Miguel Oliveira. He finished 12th with 80 points. In 2019, at American Racing, he was 12th again with 90 points and added another podium, third in Thailand.

MotoGP with KTM and Honda

He made his premier-class debut at Valencia in 2019 with Red Bull KTM Tech3, standing in for the injured Miguel Oliveira; at 19 he became the youngest Spanish rider to start a MotoGP race, though he retired on lap 13. In 2020 he raced full-time for Tech3, scoring 27 points for 20th overall, with ninth places at Aragón and Austria and tenth in Styria; he missed three rounds through COVID-19-related absences. In 2021, with Danilo Petrucci as team-mate, he was 20th again with 39 points and a best result of sixth in Austria. He lost his seat at the end of the year. In 2023, by then a Superbike rider, Honda called him up to replace Marc Márquez and Joan Mir at Repsol Honda and Álex Rins at LCR. In 2026 he returned to the MotoGP grid as a substitute at Gresini Racing, on a Ducati, in place of Álex Márquez and Fermín Aldeguer.

Superbikes with Honda

In 2022 he arrived in the Superbike World Championship with Team HRC, taking over from Álvaro Bautista. At his second round, Assen, he finished third in Race 2, Honda’s first podium at the Dutch circuit since 2016. That year he also took his first pole position and ended ninth with 189 points. The next three seasons on the CBR1000RR-R were patchier: 13th in 2023 with 143 points and no podiums, 12th in 2024 with 134 points and a third place in October, and 13th in 2025 with 103. In 2025 he was injured in a multi-rider crash at the Hungarian round and missed the Suzuka 8 Hours, for which he had been entered.

The move to Ducati

For 2026 he signed for Aruba.it Racing Ducati to ride the Panigale V4 R alongside Nicolò Bulega. His first Superbike win came in July, in Race 1 at Donington Park, ahead of Bulega. In September he won all three races at Cremona: Race 1, the Superpole Race and Race 2. Bulega sealed the title at that same round, and Lecuona finished the season as world championship runner-up with 563 points, 4 wins, 32 podiums and 27 second places from 36 races.