Honda HRC’s MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship put rubber to the road at a private test event at the Circuito Estoril hosted from August 25th to the 26th, kicking off the return to action as they and the rest of the grid make preparations for the impending Acerbis French Round. Much in 2026 form, rainy weather made an unfortunate appearance on track, limiting dry time on track; undeterred, Honda HRC riders Jake Dixon and Somkiat Chantra set out on track, and finished the two-day test having ridden 134 and 175 laps respectively.
“I FEEL A BIT MORE POSITIVE WITH THE FEELING FROM THE FRONT OF THE BIKE”
Dixon seized the summer break’s opportunity to continue his recovery process after his wrist injury from the season-opening round as complications from the resulting surgery have continued to ail the Brit through the last few rounds. With that in check, he took to the track at Estoril for the first time in his career to get the rust off and to work on his team’s CBR1000RR-R SP. While he states that there are still difficult sticking points with the bike, he and his team are happy with the steps made at the circuit and his improved feeling in wet weather conditions.
On the two-day test at the Portuguese venue, Dixon said: “On Day 1, damp conditions following early morning rain were not ideal, and I only made one run, to learn the track. I tend to learn tracks quickly, and I actually really like it here, so we were able to start testing pretty much straight away in the afternoon once the track fully dried. Considering how many things we tried, I’m satisfied with how the day went, even if there was still one area where we weren’t completely happy. We planned to focus on that straight away on Day 2, but conditions this morning were fully wet. I haven’t had much chance to ride in wet conditions, so we took the chance to complete several runs anyway. In the afternoon the track dried again, but generally I think the conditions were a little bit worse on Day 2 in terms of grip. We put in the work though and got through a lot of items. In the end, I feel a little bit more positive with the feeling from the front of the bike. We made some slight improvements with the rear but still need to go a little bit further with that. In general, not bad. I think that will stand us in good stead for the end of this year and next year.”
“IT WAS GOOD…I’VE NOT HAD MUCH EXPERIENCE WITH THE CBR1000RR-R SP ON PIRELLI RAIN TYRES”
While the Thai rider has had injury struggles of his own, missing the season-opening bout at Australia and Round 3 at Assen, he has made steps not only with the development of the Honda factory bike, but with his racecraft as well. The #35 scored points just twice over the first three rounds of the season that he was able to compete in; from Aragon on, he’s been able to get on the board five times, including his best WorldSBK performance to date of P13 in Race 2 at Misano.
On his time on track at Estoril, Chantra said: “We’ve finished two days of testing in Estoril. On day one, as always, we started working on the bike setup, trying different settings. Some were not working while others were positive and by the end of the day the feeling was quite good. We also tried to do some long runs, and the lap times were solid in the afternoon. This morning brought full wet conditions, and it was good for me to test in the wet because I’ve not had much experience of it with the CBR1000RR-R SP on Pirelli rain tyres. It was good to try this for the first time. We made quite a lot of laps in the wet and ultimately found some settings that looked good. In the afternoon the track started to dry, and we kept working hard because we wanted to find more. It looks like we might have found something, and we also improved the lap time. It’s never enough though; we always need and want to improve more. Next up is the Magny-Cours round, where we’ll try to take another step.”
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