Aldeguer ruled out again, Lecuona gets Gresini call for Silverstone
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 31, 2026
Silverstone call-up
Iker Lecuona will step in for Fermín Aldeguer at Silverstone and return to the Gresini team for the British Grand Prix. He will ride Aldeguer’s Ducati at the British venue, giving Gresini a direct replacement for the 12th round of the MotoGP World Championship. The switch adds another appearance for Lecuona with the squad after his earlier stand-in ride for Alex Márquez in Hungary. Gresini moved quickly to keep its lineup intact, and the team now gets a rider who already knows how to slot into the garage and get to work without a long adaptation period.
The call-up also keeps the focus on what Gresini needs most this weekend, a steady substitute who can manage the race program and deliver a clean result. Silverstone brings another test for a team that has already dealt with one major injury interruption and had to reshape its plans around it. Lecuona now takes on that task with the same bike Aldeguer would have used, which gives Gresini continuity on the technical side and a familiar name in the seat. It is a straightforward change in personnel, but an important one for a team trying to keep its season on track through a difficult stretch.
Aldeguer recovery
Aldeguer will miss Silverstone because he has not recovered in time from a fractured T7 vertebra. He picked up the injury in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix in late June and has already sat out the Dutch Grand Prix races and the German MotoGP. Gresini said he will remain out as a precaution, a clear sign that the team is taking the long view with his return. The setback removes one of Gresini’s regular riders from the grid again, but the plan now centers on recovery rather than forcing a rushed comeback.
The timeline for Aldeguer’s return points beyond this weekend. He has been cleared to resume training later in the summer and is expected back for Gresini at Aragon. That leaves Silverstone as another missed round in a spell that has already grown longer than the team would have wanted. Even so, the update offers a path forward. Aldeguer can rebuild fitness before he returns to competition, and Gresini can keep the seat warm until he is ready. For now, the priority is simple. He stays out, he keeps recovering and the team uses Lecuona to cover the gap.
Lecuona form
Lecuona arrives with recent form in World Superbike and a useful record as a substitute. He is a Ducati World Superbike rider, and earlier in the month he scored his first WorldSBK win at Donington. He also finished seventh in the Hungarian Grand Prix, which gives Gresini another measure of confidence that he can handle MotoGP duty when called on. That result came during his previous fill-in appearance, the same one in which he replaced Alex Márquez in Hungary. Those runs show that Lecuona has already adapted to the demands of switching contexts quickly and getting a race weekend under way with little time to settle in.
That background matters for Silverstone, where the pace of the weekend will leave little room for a slow start. Lecuona does not need to change who he is as a rider. He needs to apply the same sharp approach that produced his first WorldSBK victory and carried him through his last MotoGP stand-in ride. Gresini gets a rider who has already been tested in both paddocks, while Lecuona gets another chance to show he can step into a premier-class seat and do the job. For a team managing an injury absence, that is the sort of replacement that keeps the weekend moving in the right direction.
