Jonathan Rea "felt fast" but "frustrated" by Honda WorldSBK position

Honda’s 2026 WorldSBK injuries woes continued at Assen on Saturday when Somkiat Chantra was ruled out of Superpole and Race 1 by injuries in final practice.

The former MotoGP rider lost control as he accelerated out of the Turn 5 hairpin, lowsiding before his bike then gripped and ran across his legs.
    
“The crash was a bit unexpected honestly,” Chantra said. “Coming out of Turn 5, I lost the front and although I attempted to save it, I couldn’t and I crashed. The rear tyre impacted on my leg.”

The session was red flagged while the Thai rider received medical assistance.

He was later confirmed unfit for the remainder of the day due to a lower back contusion, muscular thigh contusions, and hematoma.

Chantra’s condition will be reviewed before warm-up on Sunday.

“I was checked over at the Medical Centre and luckily nothing is broken. I have a  painful leg following what was quite a hard impact,” he said. “We will stay calm for today and see how I am tomorrow, when I will be reassessed by the doctors.”

Chantra’s accident left Jonathan Rea, replacing the injured Jake Dixon for the second event in a row, as the only Honda rider on track.

The 17-time Assen winner was left 18th in qualifying, lapping 1.712s behind Ducati title leader Nicolo Bulega.

“In Superpole, I did a 33.8, which felt fast to me, but unfortunately, I was really frustrated when I saw the position,” Rea admitted.

The Ulsterman lost further ground at the start of Race 1, then reached 17th on lap 5, where he remained.

“I made a bad start to the race. The bike wouldn't go forward off the line, so I lost some positions,” Rea confirmed.

“I felt okay with the bike in the early stages and the grip was not so bad.

“But then I was fighting with another rider, and I lost track position to the group in front. I was struggling with some areas of the bike, and then the rain came, so I just concentrated on avoiding mistakes and bringing it home.

“We have a lot of data to look through now to try to improve, and I think today’s race highlighted some of our weak areas that we can focus on and give the engineers something to think about.”