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The best CBR 1000 RR-R at the end of the Superbike tests at Phillip Island is that of Iker Lecuona. On the second and final day of practice, the young 23-year-old finished just inside the top-10 with eighth position in 1'30.930, almost seven tenths behind the pacesetter Alvaro Bautista. The 2023 season is almost upon us and, if the competition (Ducati in primis) are already sharpening their weapons for the first weekend of the year, the feeling is that Honda HRC, on the other hand, is shrouded in a large cloud of doubts and uncertainties.
The gap is anything but satisfactory and Lecuona launches the alarm bells: "We suffered quite a bit and we don't understand why. Not everything is to be thrown away because in the final part of today I managed to improve, but we need at least one more day of testing before we can start the season in the best possible way. We don't know where we are losing those precious tenths per lap, especially when we put on new tyres. Over the race distance I feel stronger and this is good given the premises for 2022. We are missing the first laps".
Although the fast, left-hand corners of Phillip Island always tell their own story in the championship, the former MotoGP and Moto2 world champion is convinced that the characteristics of the Australian track are not the reason for the current performance of the Fireblade: "Looking at the times in the previous outings it may seem the opposite since in some situations I was good in the time attack, the reality is that we have struggled all winter. Honestly, we can't find the way. At Portimao we found the right compromises for the race pace, while here I understood right from the first runs yesterday that something was wrong. The bike is very nervous and difficult to stop".
It is said in Japan that they are working hard to get the CBR back to competing for the top positions, which at the moment remain a long way off: "Everyone is giving our best. From the technicians to the engineers up to me. The point is that we haven't a specific problem to analyse and solve, in fact my feelings on the bike are excellent. We're losing time, we're talking about 5-6 tenths a lap with fresh tyres, and we don't know why. We have to focus on this point in view of this weekend ".
