MotoGP comes back from its summer break at Silverstone on 7-9 August with one fewer full-time rider than it started the season with, and a World Superbike race winner filling the gap.
Gresini Racing confirmed on Friday morning that Fermin Aldeguer will not ride at the British Grand Prix. The 21-year-old fractured his T7 vertebra in a crash at Assen's Duikersloot corner during Friday practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of June - the same turn where team-mate Alex Marquez crashed that weekend, though Marquez raced on and finished fifth. Aldeguer's medical team opted against surgery in favour of rest.
"Fermin Aldeguer will not compete at Silverstone in the 12th round of the MotoGP World Championship," the team said. "The Spanish rider will remain out of competition as a precaution. However, he has been medically cleared to resume training from August 15 onwards, and Team Gresini will welcome him back in Aragon in approximately one month's time."
That clearance date falls six days after the Silverstone race, which is what settled the question. Aragon on 28-30 August is now the target, and if that slips, the San Marino round at Misano in mid-September is the next opening. Missing the British GP takes Aldeguer's absence to three races - Assen, the Sachsenring and Silverstone - from a season that was already compromised. A broken leg in a January training accident cost him all of pre-season testing and the opening round. He sits 11th in the standings.
The replacement is the same one Gresini used in June. Iker Lecuona, a factory Ducati rider in World Superbikes, stood in for Alex Marquez at the Hungarian Grand Prix at Balaton Park and qualified 16th before finishing seventh - his first MotoGP race in three years.
"It was an incredible weekend with a team that welcomed me in a fantastic way," Lecuona said after that race. "We worked well, had fun, and brought home a great result. Despite the many mistakes during the race, we found excellent feeling with the bike, especially towards the end, and that's where I really pushed."
Since Hungary his stock has risen further. At Donington Park in early July he took his first world championship race win, ending team-mate Nicolo Bulega's 25-race Superbike winning streak, and signed a new two-year Ducati deal running to the end of 2028. Crash.net's Alex Whitworth noted that Bulega's own future is the one still unresolved, with a VR46 Ducati MotoGP seat alongside Aldeguer widely expected for 2027.
The Race characterised Lecuona as the standout stand-in of the 2026 season, a fair reading given a seventh place on a bike he had not ridden since 2023. SPEEDWEEK's assessment was more about the team than the rider: with Aldeguer's championship position already written off by three missed weekends, Gresini had room to prioritise a safe recovery, and an extended Superbike break happened to leave a factory Ducati rider available to take the No. 54 machine.
Silverstone has produced 11 different British Grand Prix winners in a row. A grid reshuffled by injury - Aldeguer out, Cal Crutchlow wildcarding as Johann Zarco's recovery continues, Marco Bezzecchi and Francesco Bagnaia both working back from surgery - does nothing to make a twelfth less likely.
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