27 Facts About Sandro Cortese

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

Sandro Cortese was born in Ochsenhausen, West Germany, as the son of an Italian father and a German mother.

Sandro Cortese started his career at the age of nine on pocket bikes and was European Pocket Bike champion as well as German Mini Bike champion.

Sandro Cortese competed in the German IDM Championship in the 125cc class, finishing 10th.

Sandro Cortese made his 125cc World Championship debut with Kiefer-Bos-Castrol Honda in 2005, finishing the season in 26th place with 8 points.

Sandro Cortese 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.

Sandro 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.

Sandro Cortese finished the championship in 14th place with 66 points.

Sandro Cortese's fortunes changed for the better after Mugello and he finished consistently in the top eight.

Sandro Cortese was the only 125cc rider to finish all races that year, gaining points in every race except in China.

In 2009, Sandro Cortese rode for the Finnish Ajo Motorsport team that took Di Meglio to his 125cc World Championship.

Sandro Cortese replaced Di Meglio and teamed up with Dominique Aegerter, running factory Derbi RSA 125 bikes.

Sandro Cortese finished on the podium three times and ended up sixth in the championship.

Sandro Cortese was teamed up with Marc Marquez and Adrian Martin, with each rider running different sponsorship.

Sandro Cortese took two podiums during the season, at the Sachsenring and Indianapolis.

Sandro Cortese achieved pole position in Italy, and finished seventh in the championship.

Sandro Cortese moved up to Moto2 class as a Moto3 champion in 2013.

Sandro Cortese joined Dynavolt Intact GP as the sole rider of the team.

In 2014, Sandro Cortese recorded his first podium finish in Moto2 at Brno.

Sandro Cortese remained at the team until the end of 2017 season.

Sandro Cortese 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.

Sandro Cortese promoted to Superbike class for 2019 season, signing for GRT Yamaha World SBK team where he finished 12th in the standings.

Sandro Cortese crashed in the first race of Portimao round, suffering multiple injuries which he would recover from after 8 months.

Sandro Cortese did not participate for the rest of the season, and his place was taken over by Roman Ramos, Valentin Debise, and Loris Cresson respectively.

Twenty months after his crash at Portimao, Sandro Cortese announced his retirement from motorcycle racing on his own Instagram account.

Sandro Cortese credited local emergency medical efforts for saving him from paraplegia but noted that his body has never fully recovered from the accident.

Sandro Cortese is due to start a job at one of his former sponsors, Gutmann Gruppe.