Sport + Motorsport
A freak technical fault almost certainly cost Cormac Buchanan a podium at the British Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old Southlander qualified eighth at Silverstone — matching his career best — and was running with the front group when his bike began overheating from the moment the lights went out. A suspected tear-off from another rider, sucked into the airbox, is thought to be the cause.
"I'll be honest - my goal was to be on the podium on Sunday and I believe I had the tools to compete for that. Unfortunately, when lights went out it became apparent that that wasn't going to be the case for today," Buchanan said.
He nursed the ailing machine through 10 of 15 laps, still fighting for sixth despite haemorrhaging speed on every straight.
"I went through the sighting lap and the warmup lap fine with no problems, but when I started the race the bike began overheating … so in the straights I was losing a lot of speed and was like a sitting duck. It was very difficult and I had to do all of my work on the braking. I did my best to manage it as best as possible and managed to stay with the group fighting for P6, and we were battling in that group which was good so a top finish was definitely on the cards."
The bike gave out with five laps remaining. "With five laps to go, the bike eventually gave out and to be honest I was expecting it. The bike just kept overheating and eventually it just blew its guts."
"I do feel robbed, but the reality is the team couldn't have done anything, I couldn't have done anything," he said.
His CODE Motorsports team backed that reading. "On Sunday, our young talent confirmed his candidacy for the front of the pack. Despite suffering a technical setback that progressively hampered his bike's performance, Cormac remained steadfast in the fight. Ultimately, the mechanical problem forced his retirement, preventing him from converting his strong performance into points. Nevertheless, his on-track performance clearly demonstrated that he has the necessary skill to compete at the top of the championship standings, a level of performance that the team is confident of maintaining consistently in the final stretch of the season," they said. "We leave Silverstone without the reward of points, but with the certainty that the work is paying off. Cormac has shown he is ready to fight with the best, and the speed he displayed this weekend is the way forward."
The weekend itself was a significant step forward for Buchanan, who is still building back from a serious back injury sustained in March. Saturday qualifying was the standout — a final flying lap of 2.09.8, with the last two sectors the fastest he has ever recorded, put him eighth on the grid just 0.7 seconds off pole.
"Q2 – what a session honestly. I didn't have a lap time going into the last five minutes and only had one tyre so there was no room for mistakes there," he said. "On the next lap, which was my last lap, in sector one I was two tenths slower and at that point I thought that was the lap gone. But in the end I managed to pull something out and get a really good last two sectors – the fastest I've ever done – for a 2.09.8 and P8 on the grid."
Despite the retirement, Buchanan refused to write the weekend off. "You have to look at the positives. Being able to fight up the front with that technical problem – one which really hampered us – it just shows how strong we were. Honestly, it was probably one of the best weekends I've done in my Moto3 career."
Next stop is Aragon. "We have Aragon in a couple of weeks which is a track we love and we already know that the goal is going to be to replicate what we achieved here."