Somkiat Chantra is beginning to fine-tune his performance at the 2026 World Superbike Championship Round 5, with the next schedule set as he heads to compete in Italy.
The 2026 World Superbike Championship Round 5 held the Superpole Race and Race 2 on Sunday, 17 May, at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic, marking another intense competition.
Somkiat Chantra, Thai rider number 35 from the factory Honda HRC team, and Yuki Kunii, Japanese rider number 92, both gathered data to enhance their race bikes.
In the Superpole Race, Somkiat started impressively from the seventh row. He improved his speed especially at the race start, maintaining a tight group with other riders, but unfortunately crashed on lap 2 and had to withdraw from the race.
In Race 2, Somkiat started from 19th on the grid and had a clean start. However, a few laps in, he missed the first corner, resulting in a Long Lap Penalty. Despite this, he pushed hard, closing the gap to less than one second behind competitors, finishing 18th, 57.480 seconds behind the winner. His teammate Yuki finished 19th, 69.585 seconds behind.
After the race, the Thai rider said, "Today, I competed in the Superpole Race and Race 2, but unfortunately, I crashed during the Superpole Race while braking as I was trying to catch the group. I couldn't continue. In the afternoon, I returned for Race 2 after making some setup changes to the bike. My feeling at the start was not bad, and I tried to maintain my speed."
"Then I made a mistake at the first corner because the brakes failed, causing me to run off track and receive a Long Lap Penalty. This cost me about six seconds, and the riders ahead pulled away. But on the last lap, I managed to close the gap to less than one second. I think we made good progress this weekend, but there is still a lot to improve. Next week, we have an important test, and we will try to develop both the bike and my riding skills further," Somkiat added.
Somkiat Chantra and the Honda HRC team are scheduled to participate in a crucial bike development test on 20-21 May at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy. English teammate Jake Dixon will rejoin the team for this effort.
The next round of the 2026 World Superbike Championship will take place from 29-31 May at MotorLand Aragón in Spain.