Thai rider Somkiat Chantra ranked 14th in the opening practice session at the Mobility Resort Motegi circuit in Japan.
The 2026 MotoGP season's 16th round, the Japanese Grand Prix, is set for 2-4 October at Mobility Resort Motegi in Japan. This race is highly anticipated by Thai fans as Somkiat Chantra, a top Thai rider, makes his return. He competes under the factory Honda HRC Castrol team on the Honda RC213V bike number 15.
In the first practice on the morning of Friday, 2 October, under relatively cool track conditions, Somkiat worked hard to adapt to the 2026 MotoGP bike, which he was riding for the first time. He steadily improved his lap times throughout.
Somkiat finished the first practice session in 14th place with a lap time of 1 minute 45.219 seconds, 1.146 seconds behind the leader, marking a promising start.
Meanwhile, Thai rising star Kiattisak Singhpong, competing in the Moto3 category with the Rivacold Snipers team on bike number 85, made his first practice debut in 23rd place with a lap time of 1 minute 57.259 seconds, 1.583 seconds off the leader's pace.
The Japanese Grand Prix will continue with the second practice session on Friday afternoon, 2 October, followed by qualifying on Saturday, 3 October to determine starting positions. A sprint race will take place later that day at 13:00 Thailand time.
The main race day is Sunday, 4 October, starting with Moto3 at 09:00, followed by Moto2 at 10:15, and concluding with MotoGP at 12:00, all broadcast live on TrueVisions Now via SPOTV.