Austrian MotoGP: Lecuona claims best ever result, Petrucci suffers with spinning

Iker Lecuona misses out on a first MotoGP podium with just one corner left, while Danilo Petrucci resorts to ‘lowest power map’ after using too much fuel in AustrianGP.
Iker Lecuona, Austrian MotoGP, 14 August 2021
Iker Lecuona, Austrian MotoGP, 14 August 2021
© Gold and Goose

At a time when it was needed most, Iker Lecuona se❀cured his best ever MotoGP result🙈 after surviving the final few laps in the wet on dry tyres. 

Lecuona, who has been r🌺umoured 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 throug𝄹h on slick tyres to make a last lap overtake on Aleix Es♎pargaro, 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 ꧙just like Lecuona after the Tech 3 KTM rider ran wide at turn nine. 

But even so, P6 is the Spania✨rd’s best result since joining MotoGP in 2020. Lecuona ca💧lled the last two laps ‘impossible to ride’ as you could not ‘open the throttle’. 

Lecuona said: “The last two laps it was im🌳possible 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 outꦯ on slicks but was unable to produce a similar result after suffe♍ring with rear spinning and using too much fuel. 

Petrucci added: "One of the most crazy races for sure. It w♔as very, very difficult. For me the most difficult part was the first part of the race in the dry. 

"I w♔as spinning a lot with the tyre, I used a lot of fuel and I had to switch to the lowest p🎃ower 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 a🦹t least I took some points, but yeah, it was too far."

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