- Cormac Buchanan finishes 20th at the Portuguese Moto3 GP after a tough weekend.
- Early crash and poor weather limited valuable track time at Portimão.
- Kiwi teen now targets a strong finish to his rookie season at Valencia.
New Zealand’s Moto3 Grand Prix rider Cormac Buchanan endured a tough outing at the penultimate round of the 2025 Moto3 World Championship in Portugal, finishing 20th after struggling for pace throughout the weekend.
The 18-year-old Southlander arrived at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão feeling optimistic, having shown strong form at the same circuit during pre-season testing. But despite early promise, things quickly unravelled.
“Obviously it wasn’t the weekend that we were after – especially at a track like this where I had a really strong preseason test,” Buchanan said. “I saw it as an opportunity to get back fighting at the front but it didn’t pan out like that.”
Buchanan explained that from the opening sessions, he simply couldn’t find his rhythm on the bike.
“In the race I just didn’t feel good. Everything felt really slow and I didn’t have any feeling on the bike. I couldn’t push hard because I felt like I was going to end up on the ground,” he admitted. “For me it was just a race to finish and try to learn as much as possible doing laps.”
Early Crash Sets the Tone
The weekend got off to a rocky start when Buchanan suffered a heavy crash in FP1, losing valuable track time.
“I got caught in what felt like a false neutral exiting the corner and when the gear re-engaged I got launched into a highside and landed quite hard,” he said. “So I missed all of FP1, which put us on the back foot straight away.”
That setback left the Kiwi with limited dry running before qualifying. When he finally got back on track, the conditions turned against him again.
“In practice that afternoon, we managed some decent lap times and switched to the soft tyre – but then it started to rain and that was session done. With FP2 also wet, we went into qualifying with only about 12 dry laps and none on the softs.”
A crash during the out lap in qualifying compounded the frustrations, though Buchanan was able to remount and continue.
“Qualifying was really difficult. I honestly just struggled for pace. The crash didn’t help, but it didn’t affect things too badly – we just didn’t have the rhythm to make it through to Q2,” he said.
Eyes on Valencia Finale
While the Portuguese round brought little reward, Buchanan remains determined to bounce back at the final round in Valencia, Spain, this weekend.
“My goal is to end the season on a high so we can head into next year with good feelings,” he said. “We’ll keep our head up and stay focused, because I know we can get back to where we deserve to be with the speed we had in the first half of the season.”
Despite the frustrations, Buchanan continues to show resilience in his rookie Moto3 campaign, learning the ropes in one of the toughest categories in world racing.
