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Southland motorcycle racer Cormac Buchanan has finished 13th at the Moto3 World Championship round in Germany, his best result of the 2026 season and a badly needed confidence boost after a difficult start to the year.
The Sachsenring circuit suited Buchanan from the first session. He went P9 in FP1 and P8 in practice — both within 0.3 seconds of the fastest laps set all weekend — earning direct promotion to Q2 without needing to go through the preliminary qualifying round.
"From the first laps I felt comfortable and confident in the team and with the bike. I could push early on and we were inside the top 10 in both sessions on day one to earn promotion straight to Q2," he said.
Qualifying put him 11th on the grid, his best starting position of the season and just 0.5 seconds off pole. "The qualifying was another great step forward. It was P11 but we managed to improve the lap time so much with a 1.25.4. If you'd told me I would be doing that before the race weekend, I would have been very happy."
The race started well — Buchanan ran inside the top 10 early — but tyre trouble complicated things. The medium compound struggled to hold pace, and those margins, small as they were, proved costly.
"To be honest I really struggled to keep the pace with the medium tyre which is weird. When I say we're struggling, I mean it's only two or three tenths of a second, but those small margins were costing me quite a bit," he said.
With grip fading late in the race, Buchanan made a calculated call to bank the points rather than risk a crash chasing a higher position. "I definitely think it was a wise decision on my part. I felt like I was on my limit — not so much with the pace because it wasn't super fast ahead and I'm definitely capable of running that pace, it was more so to run that pace I felt like I was risking a crash, especially with the state the tyre was in."
The tyre management issue is now a clear target heading into the second half of the season. "For the future races working with the medium tyre is something we need to improve to try and find those two or three tenths. If we can do that, we'll be able to propel ourselves into that podium fight which is obviously where we want to be."
Buchanan has been managing an injury throughout the year that he says is still not close to 100 percent. The timing of this result — just before a three-week break — matters.
"Overall, the weekend was extremely positive and a good confidence booster. Top 10 in pretty much every session and fighting for those top places was nice again," he said. "It's been a really rough start to the year with the injury, which is still not anywhere near 100 percent, so it's been frustrating at times not to be able to show my full potential. So, I'm glad we could show something this weekend."
He was generous about his CODE Motorsports crew. "I'm really grateful to my CODE Motorsports team. They've done a great job and we've been working amazingly all weekend, really enjoying ourselves. This is what the team is capable of and it's what I'm capable of. We know that big result is around the corner and we know we're very capable of fighting for top places this year."
"I won't stop believing until we get there and I thank my team for never stopping the belief in me because we've had some tough moments this year, but it's not about how many times you get pushed down, it's about how many times you get back up."
The series resumes at Silverstone from August 7-9. "Silverstone is a place I love and the next stop at Aragon is also one of my favourite circuits so I think we'll be able to put ourselves in a strong position in the second half of the season," Buchanan said. "I know the best is yet to come and it's not far away."
