Lecuona To Make Honda WSBK Switch In 2022 Alongside Vierge

Calum Gill 10:43 26/10/2021

Tech3's outgoing MotoGP rider Iker Lecuona will move to World Superbikes in 2022, partnering current Moto2 rider and fellow Spaniard Xavi Vierge in an all-new line-up for Honda.

The Japanese manufacturer has elected to field an all-new line-up after losing the services of star rider Álvaro Bautista to Ducati, replacing the BMW-bound Scott Redding. The former MotoGP podium finisher had joined the Honda team back in 2020, but couldn’t achieve the results he’d desired on Honda’s CBR1000RR-R. Honda, which has chosen not to retain Bautista’s team-mate Leon Haslam in its factory team, is set to finish fifth and last of World Superbikes’ five full-time marques in the manufacturers’ standings this year, and is alone in having failed to secure a win in 2021 - although Bautista did get it onto the podium.

Tuesday's announcement comes more than a month after the two riders made their agreements with Honda during the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix weekend. Lecuona, 21, moves to WorldSBK after two difficult seasons in MotoGP with the Tech3 KTM squad that have so far yielded a best finish of sixth at the Red Bull Ring. The two-time Moto2 podium finisher sits 18th in the riders' standings with two races still to run this season. Lecuona, who debuted in late 2019 and arrived to MotoGP full-time last year, has found himself out of a Tech3 seat for next season, with KTM electing to fill the line-up with Moto2 title rivals Remy Gardner and Raúl Fernández. The Spaniard has enjoyed something of a late-season renaissance in terms of pace, and was briefly linked with the vacant Yamaha satellite ride before that went to Moto3’s Darryn Binder. 

Vierge meanwhile makes the switch from Moto2, where has raced full-time since 2016. In that time the 24-year-old has finished in the top three four times, most recently at Barcelona in June, and scored three poles, but no wins. Vierge currently partners Jake Dixon in riding for the Petronas Sprinta outfit, which will cease to exist at the end of the season, along with the Moto3 team. Sharing the news on his Twitter account, Lecuona outlined that his venture into WSBK will be a "great challenge and I'm sure I will enjoy [it] a lot." Expanding on that, he added, "let's enjoy to the fullest the last two rounds of the current [MotoGP] season," those two races coming at the Algarve International Circuit, and the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia.