Kiwi motorcycle racer Cormac Buchanan impressed at the tricky Balaton Park circuit in Hungary at the weekend, clinching his first world championship points of the season.
Cormac Buchanan in action for CODE Motorsports during round eight of the Moto3 World Championship in Hungary. Photo: Manu Tormo
Initially impeded by tyre choice, the Southland teenager produced his fastest laps in the dying stages of the 20-lap Moto3 race and was firmly in the fight for a top 10 finish before a serious four-rider crash saw proceedings immediately halted. As a result of the red flag, placings were taken back to the previous lap where Buchanan had crossed the line in 14th position.
“Overall, I’m satisfied,” Buchanan said afterwards. “You would have to say that’s the most consistent and best weekend of the season so far.”
It’s the first points of the season which is great, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not happy with the result. It’s good to get points on the board but I want a lot more, especially with the pace I had in the latter part of the race. It was just the first half which really cost me today so that’s what I’m going to work on, figuring out why I couldn’t get the medium tyre to work.”
Buchanan said it was good to be back fighting in that top 10 group.
“The pace we showed was strong,” he shares. “It was a weekend of personal bests for the season as a whole … now I want more.”
“The pace we showed was strong. It was a weekend of personal bests for the season as a whole … now I want more.”
Balaton Park’s tight and twisty layout, combined with varying grip levels, added a challenging dynamic for racers across all three MotoGP classes.
“My goal coming into this weekend was to solidify the feeling that I had on the bike from Mugello, as well to work on my pace alone and just build up from there,” Buchanan offers. “Last year, this was a track I understood how to go fast on too late in the weekend, so I was definitely conscious of not making that same mistake again and I put a lot of work into studying.”
Together with his CODE Motorsports team, he remained committed to his strategy of working alone to achieve pace without reliance on others for a tow.
“From FP1 I felt pretty good on the bike,” Buchanan recalls. “I knew that I was strong – it was more about refining the details going into Saturday. And we did exactly that. In FP2 I found something and made a big step to improve my lap time by about a second. That gave me a lot of confidence going into qualifying because I knew I didn’t have to follow the group to get the lap time so that takes out a very big component, which can cause problems. It’s always better if you don’t need someone else to go fast.”
Buchanan’s Q1 session was good, apart from a small crash that he brushed off and was able to pass into Q2.
“In Q2 I had high hopes and was actually quite disappointed with how it went,” he admits. “I wanted to replicate my Q1 lap time, but only had one tyre left to use. The track changed completely and it felt like two very different conditions out there. I struggled to match my Q1 pace and that was frustrating because I would have been much higher up the grid. It was still my best qualifying of the season in P14 so that was a real positive and I knew I could be fast in the race considering I had good race rhythm on my own.”
Cormac Buchanan got a taste for points in Hungary. Photo: Manu Tormo
Despite not testing it in previous sessions, Buchanan opted for a medium rear tyre.
He admitted he knew it was going to be an interesting race from the outset, with conditions a lot hotter than he expected and with very little wind.
“In the qualifying I understood the soft rear tyre probably wouldn’t go the distance for the race,” Buchanan explains. “The only problem was I hadn’t tried the medium rear all weekend so I was taking a bit of a gamble.”
Buchanan made a great start in the race climbing up to ninth and stayed around that top 10 for the first stages but admitted he was “just hanging on in all honesty”.
“I just couldn’t figure out the medium tyre and what it needed to work,” Buchanan reveals. “I knew as the race went on I would become stronger as the tyre bedded in and I got a feel for it. From lap 13 onwards I guess you could say it was go-time. On used rubber I put on the pace I had been working on all weekend and focused on hauling in the gap in front which was three or four seconds.”
“It was a big task to do in just seven laps but I kept chipping away and actually did my best personal lap time on lap 17 of 19 so there was definitely no issue with the late race pace,” he explains. “I felt better on the bike as the race went on so that was good. In saying that, if I was able to hang on in those first laps to the group I was with, then a top six was definitely on the cards, because I was matching the podium group for pace at the end. It’s a little bit frustrating.”
Buchanan caught the lead group with two laps to go and knew it was going to come down to the last lap because the track was so difficult to pass on.
“I knew there was going to be chaos,” he smiles. “I knew where I was strong and identified where I could make my moves. Going into the last lap in corner 9 and 10, as I predicted, the group bunched up a lot and I made several overtakes to be third in the group to sit in the top 10. Then you turn the next corner and there’s a red flag so that obviously means it goes back to the lap before. Just one lap too late – so I had to settle for 14th.”
Round 9 of the Moto3 World Championship returns to Brno in the Czech Republic, a circuit which Buchanan didn’t get to maximise his potential at in 2025 after a nasty gash to his knee ruled him out.
“Brno is a track I really enjoyed last year, until I didn’t,” he smiles. “I feel like I have a score to settle with that track considering the events of last season so we’re on the right path and it’s important to keep this consistency and keep chipping away at the points, improving every race. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s certainly been a difficult start to the year with the injuries and it has taken me a lot longer to get points than I would have wanted or expected but hey, we’ve got them now.”
“It feels a little bit like a monkey off my back,” Buchanan laughs. “The first ones are ticked off and now we can keep fighting for the bigger ones and the better points positions in the races. Onwards and upwards for Brno. The team did a great job this weekend and I’m ready for it.”
Cormac Buchanan will now head to Round 9 of the Moto3 World Championship to be held at Brno in the Czech Republic. Photo: Manu Tormo
