Iker Lecuona haꦕs been given the hurry-up by Tech3 KTM MotoGP team boss Herve Poncharal after another back-of the grid performance in Po⛦rtimao.

Lecuona, whose 2022 KTM seat is alreaꦇdy rumoured to be under pressure from Moto2 star Rem🦋y Gardner, finally scored his first point of the season with a distant 15th place.

The young Spaniard, who underwent arm pump surgery between Qatar and Portimao, crossed the line 50.6s from Yamaha race win💝ner Fabio Quartararo and 12s from the next closest rider, Aprilia rookie Lorenzo Savadori. Only Miguel Oliveira, who crashed, finished behind him.

Lecuona's new team-mate Danilo Petruc🅠ci also scored his first points of the year in Portugal, courtesy of a 13th place, and was 29.8s from Quartararo.

“You always have to find the brig🔯ht side of the whole weekend and the positive side is, we got our two ♒guys, Danilo and Iker in the points, which are the first points of the season," said Poncharal.

"[But] if we want t♊o be completely objective, we are far. Qualifying was d🥀ifficult, the start of the race was difficult as well.

“Danilo had, I think a good tyre choice with the hard front and rear. H෴e was the only one and we were expecting him to be maybe in a better shape the last 10 laps than the others. We could see him catching the guys in front of him, but not enough. He ended up 0.176 behind Marini.

"I’d still like to thank him for pushing as much as he can at the moment. It is still a learnin𒉰g process. We need to understand more and more how we can help hi꧅m to be feeling more comfortable and to be giving him better sensations to push more."

But Lecuona's performances during his second season with the teꦑam and bike a♏re much more of a worry.

“Iker, I would say, the only positive is that we got one point, but honestly, I d🌱on’t know what to say at the moment. I’m lost for words and I think he is lost for everything," Poncharal said.

"When I remember Iker at the very beginning last year, he was full of energy, sometimes doing mistakes, but pushing. This year for some reason there is nothing that ꧙works, there is no sparkle. So, yes, we got a 𝐆point, but very, very far down.

“We need to talk, we need to debrief. We saw KTM is competitive. Brad Binder ended up fifth, 1.8 seconds to P2, which is ano🌠ther strong performance after Qatar. So clearly, t🧔he bike is there.

"We don’t want to talk too much about technical things. We need to give our riders a better feeling, we need to make them a bit hungrier and let’s hope that will happen i🐈n Jerez, which is the fourth round of the Championshi﷽p.

"🔴It is already the fourth round and everybody needs to wake up and push🍃.”

Lecuo🎃na took a best race result of ninth pl😼ace last season.