Honda HRC navigates challenges on Day 1 of the Portuguese WorldSBK round
Autódromo Internacional do AlgarveA challenging start for the Honda HRC team at Portimão leaves riders Chantra and Rea with work to do on Saturday
The 2026 Superbike World Championship resumed today at Portugal’s Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, with the factory Honda HRC team taking to the track for the day’s two free practice sessions with riders Somkiat Chantra and Jonathan Rea, the latter standing in for permanent entry Jake Dixon. Recovering Dixon is present at the track this weekend, supporting his teammates from the garage.
Under sunny skies, Chantra and Rea headed out for a first free practice at 10:20 local time (CET-1). Chantra, who is the first Thai rider to compete full time in WorldSBK, is racing for the first time after missing the opening Australian round due to injury. Passed fit to ride in FP1, he opted for an approach that would allow him to assess his physical condition and gradually build confidence. Making sixteen laps of this very technical and physical track, the Thai rider set a best time of 1’42.098 to place nineteenth. He underwent a second medical check, post-session, with doctors confirming that he is fit to continue with the race weekend.
Test rider Rea worked methodically with the technicians during this opening session, the focus very much on making careful and well-considered changes to the setup of his CBR1000RR-R with a focus on the electronics. At the end of this initial 45-minute phase, the Northern Irish rider placed a temporary seventeenth with a time of 1’41.907.
The afternoon’s practice ran in similarly warm, sunny conditions. The two Honda HRC riders were quickly able to improve on their FP1 times, but Rea then suffered a crash at Turn 11, forcing him back to the pits and costing him valuable track time. Chantra suffered the same fate around ten minutes before the end of the session, caught up in a crash at Turn 15. Completing only five laps and unable to further improve on his times as a result, Rea placed eighteenth in the combined standings (1’41.578), followed by Chantra in twentieth with a 1’41.921.
Both riders are ready to work with their respective teams to make a step forward in Free Practice 3, which gets underway at 09:45 local time tomorrow morning.
“It’s a pity about the crash this afternoon. There was no warning and it happened just a few laps into the session. I’m sorry for the team as well, as they now have to rebuild the bike, so apologies to them. We’ll have to start again tomorrow. Even in those few laps, though, we found something with the bike that made it a bit easier for me to ride, and I was able to improve my lap time by four tenths compared to the morning, which is positive. I also felt I could go quite a bit faster, so at least it gives us a good direction for tomorrow. This morning I didn’t complete many laps either, as we had quite a few things to test, with a focus on the electronics, so we were in and out of the garage. We’ll have to decide tomorrow whether to continue with that kind of testing, maybe even during Race 1, or whether to put everything together. We’re still learning. Every lap on this bike gives us more information and sometimes a different direction, so it’s important to keep building the full picture.”
“It’s a pity about the crash this afternoon. There was no warning and it happened just a few laps into the session. I’m sorry for the team as well, as they now have to rebuild the bike, so apologies to them. We’ll have to start again tomorrow. Even in those few laps, though, we found something with the bike that made it a bit easier for me to ride, and I was able to improve my lap time by four tenths compared to the morning, which is positive. I also felt I could go quite a bit faster, so at least it gives us a good direction for tomorrow. This morning I didn’t complete many laps either, as we had quite a few things to test, with a focus on the electronics, so we were in and out of the garage. We’ll have to decide tomorrow whether to continue with that kind of testing, maybe even during Race 1, or whether to put everything together. We’re still learning. Every lap on this bike gives us more information and sometimes a different direction, so it’s important to keep building the full picture.”
“Firstly, I’m really happy to be back racing this weekend. In FP1, the focus was on getting back up to speed, understanding the bike again and working towards a solid base set-up. In FP2, we made some changes and I tried to push a little more. Towards the end I had a crash at Turn 15 when I lost the front, but luckily there were no consequences. We still have time to improve, so the aim is to keep learning tomorrow, take things step by step and continue pushing.”
“Firstly, I’m really happy to be back racing this weekend. In FP1, the focus was on getting back up to speed, understanding the bike again and working towards a solid base set-up. In FP2, we made some changes and I tried to push a little more. Towards the end I had a crash at Turn 15 when I lost the front, but luckily there were no consequences. We still have time to improve, so the aim is to keep learning tomorrow, take things step by step and continue pushing.”
