Having not⭕ stood on a WorldSBK podium since Assen 2022, Iker Lecuona finally returned to the rostrum in Race 1 at this weekend’s Estoril World Superbike round.

It was a chaotic start to the r♎ace for Lecu🅰ona, he explained. He nearly crashed, and then lost positions to avoid it.

“The start was good, and I could overtake some 🐻riders in the first corner, but at Turn 4 I we💝nt just behind Xavi [Vierge] and tried to overtake [Michael Ruben] Rinaldi,” the Honda rider told WorldSBK.com.

“Rinaldi cro♒ssed the line and my front ꦦtyre hit him on the back. I almost crashed, so I closed the throttle to not crash and about six riders overtook me.”

As the race progressed, so did Lecuona,ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ picking up positions to eventually land on the pod🐠ium.

“I started to overtake, and I couldn’t think so much, just to overtake at Turn 3, Turn 6. I overtook many riders, Tu🐲rn 7 braking — I f🍬elt really strong,” Lecuona said.

“I h💜ad a lot of performance today. I didn’t expect a podium because we didn’t have enough time. It was a question ma♊rk over tyre life.

“I said I’d try to save the tyre in some places a♊nd keep the pace. I caught Alex [Lowes], overtook him and I was P4.

“I wanted to catch [Nicolo🗹] 🐬Bulega and [Andrea] Locatelli, but Locatelli made a mistake.

“I couldn’t relax because Alexꦚ was 0.5 seconds behind me. I went a bit faster than Bulega, and I said to keep the pace.

“In the last two laps, I thought the podium was possible after two years. I was very happy during the♋ whole lap, but coming into pit lane, I started to cry.

“It’s been a hard year for me with many injuri﷽e🧸s. Sometimes, I felt like I wasn’t good enough to be here. It was a really good thing for me.”

Lecuona said that he had made improvements mentally over the summer which have contributed to improved 🌃performances in recent races.

“I thin🐟k in the summer, I need to say I started to work with a psychologist because I needed to be more focused and relaxed in some areas," he said.

“I work physically more than ever; eat the food I need toꦿ eat. I listen to my manager and my team, to my girlfriend and my friends.

“I changed a lot and they’re [Honda] working really hard in Japan. From the summer, the bike improved♌ a lot. We were getting closer and closer and now we’ve done it.”