Sandro Cortese

Alessandro "Sandro" Cortese (born 6 January 1990) is a retired German motorcycle racer, who last competed in 2020 World Superbike Championship for Team Pedercini. Cortese won his first world title in the Moto3 class, in 2012, and his second in the Supersport World Championship, in 2018. He lives in Berkheim, Germany.

Sandro Cortese
Cortese at the 2012 Australian Grand Prix
Nationality	German
Born	(1990-01-06) 6 January 1990 Ochsenhausen, West Germany
Current team	Outdo Kawasaki TPR
Bike number	11
Motorcycle racing career statistics Moto2 World Championship Active years 2013–2017 Manufacturers Kalex Championships 0 2017 championship position 18th (43 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 88 0 3 0 0 301 Moto3 World Championship Active years 2012 Manufacturers KTM Championships 1 (2012) 2012 championship position 1st (325 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 17 5 15 7 4 325 125cc World Championship Active years 2005–2011 Manufacturers Honda, Derbi, Aprilia Championships 0 2011 championship position 4th (225 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 116 2 11 3 7 736 Superbike World Championship Active years 2019–2020 Manufacturers Yamaha, Kawasaki Championships 0 2020 championship position 19th (14 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 43 0 0 0 0 148 Supersport World Championship Active years 2018 Manufacturers Yamaha Championships 1 (2018) 2018 championship position 1st (208 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 12 2 8 3 7 208

Cortese contested every race from his Grand Prix début in 2005 until the 2016 French Grand Prix, where he missed the race due to a knee injury.

Career

Early career

Cortese was born in Ochsenhausen, West Germany, as the son of an Italian father and a German mother. He started his career at the age of nine on pocket bikes and was European Pocket Bike champion as well as German Mini Bike champion. He competed in the German IDM Championship in the 125cc class, finishing 10th.

125cc World Championship

Sandro Cortese races MotoGP at Sachsenring, 2011

Cortese made his 125cc World Championship debut with Kiefer-Bos-Castrol Honda in 2005, finishing the season in 26th place with 8 points. His best finish was 14th place in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. In 2006, he switched to the 2005 125cc Championship-winning team, Elit – Caffè Latte Honda as team mate to 125cc World Champion Thomas Lüthi. He made steady progress scoring some championship points, His best result was in the Portuguese Grand Prix in 10th place, improving his championship standing to 17th place with 23 points.

In 2007 his team was renamed Emmi – Caffè Latte and it switched to Aprilia motorbikes. Lüthi moved up to 250cc, also with Aprilia. Cortese improved in 2007, finishing most of the season's races in the top 10, including 7th places in the French, the Italian and German Grands Prix. He finished the championship in 14th place with 66 points. For 2008 he rode a works Aprilia RSA 125. The 2008 season started poorly for him, finishing outside the top 8 at the first five races. His fortunes changed for the better after Mugello and he finished consistently in the top eight. In the Australian Grand Prix he crashed while leading but managed to recover to sixth and helped Mike Di Meglio to win the championship by finishing ahead of Simone Corsi, Di Meglio's championship rival. In the Malaysian Grand Prix he rode the fastest lap of the race despite starting 18th on the grid to finish fourth. He was the only 125cc rider to finish all races that year, gaining points in every race except in China.

In 2009, Cortese rode for the Finnish Ajo Motorsport team that took Di Meglio to his 125cc World Championship. He replaced Di Meglio and teamed up with Dominique Aegerter, running factory Derbi RSA 125 bikes. Cortese finished on the podium three times and ended up sixth in the championship.

For 2010 he rode a Derbi again, for Ajo Motorsport. He was teamed up with Marc Márquez and Adrián Martín, with each rider running different sponsorship. Cortese took two podiums during the season, at the Sachsenring and Indianapolis. He also achieved pole position in Italy, and finished seventh in the championship.

For the 2011 season, Cortese moved to Dirk Heidolf's Racing Team Germany outfit, as a single-bike entry. He took second-place finishes in Qatar and Portugal, before taking his first Grand Prix victory – in his 109th start – in the Czech Republic, having battled with Johann Zarco in the closing stages of the race. Cortese eventually ended the season fourth in the championship.

Moto2 World Championship

Cortese moved up to Moto2 class as a Moto3 champion in 2013. He joined Dynavolt Intact GP as the sole rider of the team. In 2014, Cortese recorded his first podium finish in Moto2 at Brno. He remained at the team until the end of 2017 season.

Supersport World Championship

After failing to secure a ride for 2018 Moto2 season, Cortese signed a deal with Kallio Racing to race in Supersport World Championship, aboard Yamaha YZF-R6. He won 2 races at Aragon and Donington Park, securing 8 podium finishes and became the champion of 2018 Supersport World Championship in his maiden season.

Superbike World Championship

He promoted to Superbike class for 2019 season, signing for GRT Yamaha World SBK team where he finished 12th in the standings. The following year he moved to Team Pedercini, switched bike from Yamaha to Kawasaki. He crashed in the first race of Portimao round, suffering multiple injuries which he would recover from after 8 months. He did not participate for the rest of the season, and his place was taken over by Roman Ramos, Valentin Debise, and Loris Cresson respectively.

Retirement

Twenty months after his crash at Portimão, Cortese announced his retirement from motorcycle racing on his own Instagram account. He credited local emergency medical efforts for saving him from paraplegia but noted that his body has never fully recovered from the accident. Cortese is due to start a job at one of his former sponsors, Gutmann Gruppe.

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Type	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2005	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	Kiefer-Bos-Castrol Honda	16	0	0	0	0	8	26th
2006	125cc	Honda	Honda RS125R	Elit – Caffè Latte	16	0	0	0	0	23	17th
2007	125cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RS125	Elit – Caffè Latte	17	0	0	0	0	66	14th
2008	125cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 125	Elit – Caffè Latte	17	0	0	0	1	141	8th
2009	125cc	Derbi	Derbi RSA 125	Ajo Interwetten	16	0	3	1	2	130	6th
2010	125cc	Derbi	Derbi RS 125 R	Avant Mitsubishi Ajo	17	0	2	1	2	143	7th
2011	125cc	Aprilia	Aprilia RSA 125	Intact-Racing Team Germany	17	2	6	1	2	225	4th
2012	Moto3	KTM	KTM RC250GP	Red Bull KTM Ajo	17	5	15	7	4	325	1st
2013	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2	Dynavolt Intact GP	17	0	0	0	0	22	19th
2014	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2	Dynavolt Intact GP	18	0	1	0	0	85	9th
2015	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2	Dynavolt Intact GP	18	0	1	0	0	90	11th
2016	Moto2	Kalex	Kalex Moto2	Dynavolt Intact GP	17	0	1	0	0	61	15th
2017	Moto2	Suter	Suter MMX2	Dynavolt Intact GP	18	0	0	0	0	43	18th
Total					221	7	29	10	11	1362

By class

Class	Seasons	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
125cc	2005–2011	2005 Spain	2009 Qatar	2011 Czech Republic	116	2	11	3	7	736	0
Moto3	2012	2012 Qatar	2012 Qatar	2012 Portugal	17	5	15	7	4	325	1
Moto2	2013–2017	2013 Qatar	2014 Czech Republic		88	0	3	0	0	301	0
Total	2005–2017				221	7	29	10	11	1362	1

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2005	125cc	Honda	SPA 20	POR 25	CHN Ret	FRA 15	ITA Ret	CAT 23	NED 24	GBR 15	GER 14	CZE 14	JPN Ret	MAL 21	QAT 17	AUS 19	TUR 14	VAL Ret			26th	8
2006	125cc	Honda	SPA 16	QAT Ret	TUR 16	CHN 17	FRA 15	ITA Ret	CAT 19	NED 14	GBR 14	GER 13	CZE 11	MAL 17	AUS 14	JPN 14	POR 10	VAL 18			17th	23
2007	125cc	Aprilia	QAT 17	SPA 7	TUR Ret	CHN 18	FRA 7	ITA 7	CAT 11	GBR 12	NED 8	GER 7	CZE 10	RSM 15	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 10	MAL Ret	VAL Ret		14th	66
2008	125cc	Aprilia	QAT 11	SPA 10	POR 10	CHN 16	FRA 11	ITA 8	CAT 8	GBR 9	NED 4	GER 6	CZE 7	RSM 7	INP 5	JPN 6	AUS 6	MAL 4	VAL 5		8th	141
2009	125cc	Derbi	QAT 3	JPN 6	SPA 6	FRA 12	ITA 10	CAT 9	NED Ret	GER 6	GBR Ret	CZE 6	INP 18	RSM 5	POR 2	AUS 3	MAL 6	VAL 8			6th	130
2010	125cc	Derbi	QAT 5	SPA 11	FRA 6	ITA Ret	GBR 6	NED 5	CAT 4	GER 3	CZE 16	INP 2	RSM 5	ARA 5	JPN 12	MAL 6	AUS Ret	POR Ret	VAL 5		7th	143
2011	125cc	Aprilia	QAT 2	SPA 6	POR 2	FRA 7	CAT 4	GBR 7	NED 4	ITA 12	GER 8	CZE 1	INP 3	RSM 4	ARA 7	JPN 5	AUS 1	MAL 2	VAL Ret		4th	225
2012	Moto3	KTM	QAT 3	SPA 3	POR 1	FRA 6	CAT 2	GBR 3	NED 2	GER 1	ITA 3	INP 2	CZE 3	RSM 1	ARA 2	JPN 6	MAL 1	AUS 1	VAL 2		1st	325
2013	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 17	AME 25	SPA 18	FRA 12	ITA 14	CAT Ret	NED 14	GER 14	INP 16	CZE Ret	GBR 20	RSM Ret	ARA 10	MAL Ret	AUS 11	JPN 15	VAL 16		19th	22
2014	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 7	AME 14	ARG 9	SPA 9	FRA 12	ITA 13	CAT Ret	NED Ret	GER Ret	INP 6	CZE 3	GBR 18	RSM 12	ARA 12	JPN Ret	AUS 6	MAL 7	VAL Ret	9th	85
2015	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 7	AME 14	ARG 7	SPA Ret	FRA 14	ITA 8	CAT Ret	NED 17	GER 11	INP Ret	CZE 8	GBR 8	RSM 8	ARA 13	JPN 3	AUS Ret	MAL 7	VAL 13	11th	90
2016	Moto2	Kalex	QAT 15	ARG Ret	AME 12	SPA Ret	FRA DNS	ITA 11	CAT Ret	NED 12	GER 15	AUT 11	CZE 23	GBR 12	RSM 9	ARA 13	JPN 5	AUS 3	MAL 17	VAL Ret	15th	61
2017	Moto2	Suter	QAT 22	ARG 8	AME 23	SPA Ret	FRA 14	ITA 19	CAT Ret	NED Ret	GER 8	CZE Ret	AUT Ret	GBR Ret	RSM 5	ARA 9	JPN Ret	AUS 9	MAL Ret	VAL Ret	18th	43

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
2018	Yamaha	AUS 3	THA 4	SPA 1	NED 6	ITA 4	GBR 1	CZE 2	ITA 3	POR 6	FRA 2	ARG 2	QAT 2	1st	208

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8			9			10			11			12			13			Pos	Pts
		R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2
2019	Yamaha	AUS 8	AUS 7	AUS 8	THA 7	THA 7	THA 7	SPA 7	SPA 9	SPA 10	NED 13	NED C	NED 11	ITA Ret	ITA 13	ITA C	SPA 8	SPA 9	SPA 6	ITA 7	ITA Ret	ITA 15	GBR Ret	GBR Ret	GBR 13	USA 14	USA 11	USA 14	POR 8	POR 8	POR 10	FRA 10	FRA 11	FRA Ret	ARG DNS	ARG 7	ARG 15	QAT Ret	QAT 8	QAT 10	12th	134
2020	Kawasaki	AUS 13	AUS 11	AUS 9	SPA 14	SPA 14	SPA 14	POR Ret	POR DNS	POR DNS	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	FRA	POR	POR	POR																19th	14

External links

• Official website
• Sandro Cortese at MotoGP.com
• Sandro Cortese at WorldSBK.com
• Sandro Cortese at AS.com (in Spanish)