Home victory returned Cortese to championship lead

08/07/2012

Red Bull KTM Ajo Factory Racing Team´s Sandro Cortese returned to championship lead in Moto3 class in a best possible way. Cortese won his home race from the pole on a wet Sachsenring circuit when the season´s eight GP was held in Germany.
The victory was Cortese´s second of the season and fourth of his career. He now leads the championship by 18 points over Spanish rider Maverick Vinales who finished 17th at Sachsenring.
“Just incredible feeling to win in front of my home crowd!”, decease Cortese rejoiced, see “This was of course an important victory for KTM and for my team as well.”
The race was postponed by 25 minutes due to heavy rain. The track was wet for a long time but it dried fast towards the end of the race.
Cortese worked his way up in a really spectacular and flawless way. When 10 laps out of 27 remained he started to dominate the race. He made his final move three laps before the finish line and French Alexis Masbou just couldn´t do anything. Cortese crossed the finish line 0, view 635 seconds before Masbou.
“Before the race I knew that I am strong in this kind of demanding circumstances”, said Cortese, “I kept saying to myself to take it easy in the beginning because when the weather is like this it´s really easy to make mistakes. I succeeded with my tactic, found a good rhythm and won.”
Team leader Aki Ajo praised Cortese´s spectacular performance.
“It was great to follow such a reasonable riding. Sandro kept himself calm and his experience paid of again.”
Ajo admitted that the situation looked extremely difficult when the rain started at Sachsenring after a warm sunny period.
“There was so much water on the track. I had a conversation with the jury when we were on the starting grid for the first time. They guided us back to our pit-boxes and postponed the beginning of the race. We were aware how the weather will change during the race and I trusted that we will have a good race if we only manage to deal the beginning of it.”
Cortese´s teammate Briton Danny Kent started next to Cortese, from second place, but ended up retiring. His bike´s engine overheated and that made an end to his battle.
The third rider of the team, Australian Arthur Sissis on the other hand shined. Sissis made his way from 21st place to ninth.
“The beginning of the German GP weekend was difficult to me but this changed everything”, said Sissis, “A great improvement and a good result.”
The hectic race period continues next weekend at the circuit of Mugello in Italy.

eni MOTORRAD GRAND PRIX DEUTSCHLAND
Moto3 Race Classification:
1. Sandro Cortese Germany, Red Bull KTM Ajo, KTM 45.36,868
2. Alexis Masbou France, Caretta Technology, Honda + 0,635
3. Luis Salom Spain, RW Racing GP, Kalex KTM + 3,998
4. Jack Miller Australia, Caretta Technology, Honda + 4,051
5. Efren Vazquez Spain, JHK Laglisse, FTR Honda + 12,119
6. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Malaysia, AirAsia-Sic-Ajo, KTM + 25,174
7. Hector Faubel Spain, Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3, Kalex KTM + 25,499
8. Luca Gruenwald Germany, Freudenberg Racing Team, Honda + 26,087
9. Arthur Sissis Australia, Red Bull KTM Ajo, KTM + 29,675
10. Jakub Kornfeil Czech, Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta, FTR Honda + 29,891
11. Toni Finsterbusch Germany, Cresto Guide MZ Racing, Honda + 33,178
12. Niccolo Antonelli Italy, San Carlo Gresini Moto3, FTR Honda + 42,858
13. Alan Techer France, Technomag-CIP-TSR, TSR Honda + 1.02,653
14. Niklas Ajo Finland, TT Motion Events Racing, KTM + 1.10,253
15. Simone Grotzkyj Italy, Ambrogio Next Racing, Suter Honda + 1.10,447

World Championship standing:
1. Cortese 148
2. Maverick Vinales Spain, FTR Honda 130
3. Salom 104
4. Masbou 71
5. Romano Fenati Italy, FTR Honda 65
6. Khairuddin 59
7.  Louis Rossi France, FTR Honda 56
8. Alex Rins Spain, Suter Honda 54
9. Danny Kent Great Britain, KTM 42
10. Antonelli 42
11. Vazquez 40
12. Miguel Oliveira Portugal, Suter Honda 39
13. Sissis 38
14. Hector Faubel Spain, Kalex KTM 38
15. Alberto Moncayo Spain, Kalex KTM 36
18. Ajo 16

Next GP: 15th of July Mugello, Italy.

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