Sandro Cortese lands 2020 WorldSBK lifeline with Pedercini Kawasaki

Double World Champion Sandro Cortese will compete in the 2020 WorldSBK Championship after landing a last-minute ride with the Pedercini Kawasaki team.

The German rider made his WorldSBK debut in 2019 on the back of winning the WorldSSP Championship a year earlier but parted company with the GRT Yamaha team over a dispute over bringing funds to the team.

However, that move instead saw Cortese – who finished 12th overall with a best finish of sixth place on the Yamaha R1 – frozen out of the rider market and seemingly primed for a year on the sidelines.

Nonetheless Cortese, who won the 2012 Moto3 World Championship, has now sourced a deal with the Pedercini Kawasaki team after the Italian outfit went through its own winter of uncertainty over whether it would make it to the WorldSBK grid.

One of the series’ longest-running teams, Pedercini originally signed Lorenzo Savadori and Jordi Torres in a two-bike effort only for its hopes to be dashed when title sponsor Global Service Solutions were forced to pull its backing due to financial investigations involving its owners.

As such, Pedercini Kawasaki released both riders and slimmed its effort down to a single Kawasaki ZX-10RR which Cortese will now ride.

As for Savadori and Torres, the former has since been riding the Aprilia RS-GP in MotoGP testing, while Torres will ride a Honda CBR1000RR-R in the Spanish Superbike Championship. Nonetheless, both have also been linked to the one last remaining ride on the WorldSBK grid at MIE Althea Honda, with a decision expected to be made in the coming days.