Lecuona claims best ever MotoGP result, Petrucci switches to lowest ‘power map’
At a time when it was needed most, Iker Lecuona secured his best ever MotoGP result after surviving the final few laps in the wet on dry tyres.
Lecuona, who has been rumoured with making a switch to Yamaha’s independent team for 2022 - his only viable option for remaining in MotoGP - has done little to hurt his chances of staying in the premier class after claiming P6 in the AustrianGP.
Lecuona came through on slick tyres to make a last lap overtake on Aleix Espargaro, which looked to be good enough for second, however, Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin on wet tyres were able to nick that position at turns nine and ten.
Mir also followed the two Ducati riders through, as did Luca Marini who was on slicks just like Lecuona after the Tech 3 KTM rider ran wide at turn nine.
But even so, P6 is the Spaniard’s best result since joining MotoGP in 2020. Lecuona called the last two laps ‘impossible to ride’ as you could not ‘open the throttle’.
Lecuona said: “The last two laps it was impossible to ride with the slicks. We go wide and we cannot open the throttle because we were spinning a lot on the straight also. We need to close early and stop the bike.
“That was a crazy race. Just I need to wait to stay on the bike but in the last two corners I lose the podium. It’s like this. Finally I was P6 with this condition so I’m very happy.”
Like Lecuona, team-mate Petrucci also stayed out on slicks but was unable to produce a similar result after suffering with rear spinning and using too much fuel.
Petrucci added: "One of the most crazy races for sure. It was very, very difficult. For me the most difficult part was the first part of the race in the dry.
"I was spinning a lot with the tyre, I used a lot of fuel and I had to switch to the lowest power map, so yeah, I was too far to fight.
"Then I didn’t switch the bike and instead tried to take a gamble. It worked because at least I took some points, but yeah, it was too far."
