Buchanan delivers another top 10 at Aragon

The undulating challenges of Spain’s Motorland Aragon proved a happy hunting ground for the kiwi teenager, confirming his evolution in the sport in partnership with the Denssi Boe Motorsports team.

“I’m really happy to finish in the front group and with the smart race I rode. Obviously, a bit disappointing because there was a lot more potential than 10th there. But I guess to not be over the moon with 10th place just shows how much we’ve progressed,” Buchanan, 18, said.

“The weekend as a whole I was super happy with how we worked.”

Conquering his second top 10 of the season in a race marked by very high temperatures and the demanding degradation of the tires, Buchanan managed each phase with intelligence. Mid race, when many began to struggle, Buchanan increased his pace, closing the distance with the head group until finally placing only 1.7 seconds from the winner, David Muñoz, of Spain.

“I had a plan to take it easy on the first laps, obviously not slow but just to not wear my tires out early on. I could see the way the guys I was following were opening the gas and knew that would destroy the tires before the end of the race so I had to stay patient, even though the lap times we were doing were half a second faster than my qualifying pace,” he said.

“With about six laps to go, I saw that my tires were good compared to the others around me so I knew that was my moment to go for it. I got to the front of the second group then just tried to do my own pace I had been practicing all weekend and was able to bridge quite a big gap to the lead group.

“I was in the front group with about four laps to go which was a pretty cool feeling to be there for the first time in the world championship.

“I made my way up to about sixth or seventh but unfortunately a bit of contact bumped me back again. We could have fought for the podium so it was a bittersweet feeling.”

Beyond the final result, Cormac's performance was especially notable for its constancy and speed. He raced at the same pace as the leaders, even exceeding his own classification time marked on Saturday. This confirmed his growing maturity and the potential of the work he has been doing with the technical team.

“The weekend as a whole was very, very positive. We had a process that we wanted to work on which was focused on working alone without the slipstream or the reference to prepare for the race,” he said.

“We were riding every single session, including the qualifying, thinking about Sunday’s race and doing laps alone to make sure I improve and develop a good feeling by myself.”

Buchanan was on the pace from the outset, finishing a solid P6 in Friday’s opening FP1 session, and 13th in practice to secure a spot directly into Q2.

“It wasn’t the perfect lap – it was actually quite a messy lap by my standards,” he said.

“Then on the next lap at corner 10 I sent myself to the moon and had quite a violent crash. It was a real strange crash in that I was actually going slower than the lap before and lost the rear even through the bike was quite upright.

“Thankfully my time was still enough for entry into Q2 and I managed to walk away mostly unscathed.

“Qualifying we did it alone which wasn’t easy with the wind but we managed to record my best ever lap at Aragon with a 1.57 to earn a PB on the grid with P13.”

The next round of the Moto3 World Championship is at Mugello in Italy from 20-23 June.

“To we have to keep the momentum like this for Mugello, keep the feet on the ground and go again in a week’s time,” Buchanan said.