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German Garcia Casanova

Lecuona to replace injured Rins at British MotoGP round

Rins has been out of action since badly breaking his right leg in a crash during the sprint race at the Italian Grand Prix.

The five-time MotoGP race winner has since undergone two operations on his broken tibia and fibula, and will not return to racing until the Austrian GP in mid-August at the earliest.

Lecuona, who previously rode for the Tech3 KTM squad in 2020 and 2021 before moving to WSBK with Honda, has been called up on two occasions by the Japanese manufacturer this year to fill in for its injured riders.

The young Spaniard replaced Marc Marquez at the Spanish GP, finishing 16th in the grand prix, and returned to the factory Honda squad at the Dutch GP to fill in for the injured Joan Mir, where he crashed out.

He will make a third Honda MotoGP appearance in 2023 at Silverstone on 4-6 August with LCR, with Mir and Marquez expected to return to the factory squad after a first half of the season plagued by injury.

The British GP coincides with the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, in which Lecuona was due to contest alongside WSBK team-mate Xavi Vierge and Takumi Takahashi.

Lecuona’s presence at Suzuka was due to Tetsuta Nagashima suffering an injury earlier this season but is now set to be fit enough to contest the event.

Iker Lecuona, Repsol Honda Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Autosport understands that Lecuona’s third MotoGP appearance of the season is part of Honda’s plans to continue evaluating the 23-year-old for a potential future ride.

With rumours linking Rins to a potential Yamaha switch in 2024, Lecuona could be in prime contention to take his LCR ride having reportedly made a good impression on HRC’s engineering staff during the Assen weekend.

Lecuona’s current contract with Honda in WSBK comes to an end at the conclusion of the 2023 season, but has already been informed that he will be renewed for a further two years – though where he rides in 2024 has not been made clear yet.

 

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