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Somkiat Chantra 'enjoyed' his first outings on the 2025 Honda RC213V

MotoGP

"I just enjoyed first because now is the moment to start with the bike and also get the feeling with the bike..."

There will be three rookies on the 2025 MotoGP grid, one of these riders is LCR Honda's Somkiat Chantra.

The Thai rider's start of the Sepang Shakedown Test was shortened as his test was cut down from three days to two.

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“We had three days to test, and I worked only two days to test because the team was preparing the bike ready for testing two days,” Chantra said.

Chantra revealed that the reason he was unable to participate on Friday was due to having two new, 2025 specification Honda RC213Vs.

“My bike was new compared to Barcelona, and so I have two bikes that are new,” he said.

“Now, my team wants me to work with the 2025 bike and see how it’s going compared to 2024.”

Chantra did improve across Saturday and Sunday, but he was slower than the Ducati and Aprilia rookies, Fermin Aldeguer and Ai Ogura.

“The first day like always I try to go to check the bike and also try to know electronics, try to learn the electronics with the bike,” he said.

“I tried to use the device really in the good places because when I compared with Taka [Takaaki Nakagami] on last year there were also some points where I was slower than him to put the rear device. Now we are going in a good direction.”

Chantra was able to ride with former MotoGP rider and new HRC Test Rider, Takaaki Nakagami. The Japanese rider was able to mentor the Thai rider throughout the opening test of the year.

“For me, [on Saturday] I was out with Taka,” he said.

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“Taka said ‘You’re riding easy,’ and I just enjoyed first because now is the moment to start with the bike and also get the feeling with the bike.

“[He] still didn’t tell me anything yesterday, in the official test they will come to me.”

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