Somkiat Chantra

Thailand gets its first ever MotoGP rider in 2025 with Somkiat Chantra joining LCR Honda.

Somkiat Chantra - Route to MotoGP

After winning the 2016 Asia Talent Cup, Somkiat Chantra made the move to Europe and spent two years in the CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship.

Although unable to claim a podium, the arrival of Buriram on the world championship calendar saw Chantra handed a wild-card for his home round, where he impressed with ninth place.

On the back of that performance, Chantra secured a full time grand prix ride - with Honda Team Asia - for 2019. But it wasn't in Moto3. 

Instead, Chantra was fast-tracked straight into the Moto2 class, where he took a best finish of ninth in each of the next two seasons.

The Thai rider's career momentum was in danger of stalling until a fifth place in 2021, but he was still only 18th in the world championship.

The 2022 season started disastrously when Chantra missed the opening race due to a hand injury in qualifying. But he rebounded in spectacular style by winning the following Indonesian Grand Prix, also his first ever grand prix podium!

Three more rostrums showed it was no fluke and Chantra repeated the victory feat at Motegi the following year, on his way to a career best sixth in the world championship.

The new Pirelli era saw Chantra without a podium, but with former team-mate and eventual champion Ai Ogura choosing Trackhouse rather than LCR Honda, an RC213V seat suddenly appeared for 2025.