MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship star Somkiat Chantra (Honda HRC) returned to MotoGP last weekend at Motegi with the Honda HRC Castrol squad. The Thai rider stood in for Joan Mir while the 2020 Champion undergoes further evaluation on a health issue and secured 13th in Sunday’s Grand Prix, matching his best result from his rookie 2025 campaign when he was with LCR Honda.
Chantra immediately showed competitive pace in Friday’s Free Practice 1 session as he finished in 14th place, ahead of his teammate for the Japanese Grand Prix, Luca Marini, after Chantra set a 1’45.219s. Despite improving to a 1’43.896s in Practice, Chantra dropped to 19th on the timesheets and had to go through Q1. He narrowly missed out on progressing through Q1 after posting a 1’43.196s, finishing fifth and just three tenths off SuperFile TrackHouse MotoGP Team duo of Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez, and two tenths off double MotoGP Champion Pecco Bagnaia.
In the Tissot Sprint, Chantra initially dropped two places from his starting position of 15th but was running back in P15 on Lap 9 of 12, before he gained another place on the final lap after Bagnaia retired. In the Grand Prix, it was a similar story as Chantra, running #15 at Motegi rather than his usual #35 in WorldSBK, dropped to 21st on the opening lap. He immediately gained a place and remained in 20th for three laps before getting ahead of WorldSBK-bound Jack Miller for 19th.
He gained two further places on Lap 9 to run in 17th, before getting back into the points-paying positions by the end of Lap 19. From there, keeping his head down, two more places came his way as he finished the weekend in 13th; matching his best result from 2025. On that occasion, it came in Indonesia, while at Motegi last season, Chantra scored a single point with 15th.
Reflecting on his return to MotoGP, Chantra said after Sunday’s Grand Prix: “I am so happy with how this whole weekend has gone. When I compared it to my feeling from last year, the difference is so much and to already match my best result in MotoGP after one weekend with the Honda HRC Castrol team shows how well we were working together. Already when I arrived already on Friday the setup of the bike was so good and today, I started better than Saturday and it was the first time I felt like I could fight on the bike, I was pushing until the end to catch Fabio but I just missed him. Thank you to everyone who helped me this weekend, I really appreciate the faith that Honda HRC put in me, and I am so happy to give them this result.”
Follow Chantra in the final two rounds of the 2026 WorldSBK campaign using the WorldSBK VideoPass – now only €9.99!