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Cortese handed WSBK lifeline by Pedercini

Sandro Cortese will race in the World Superbike championship after all in 2020 after securing a last-minute agreement with satellite Kawasaki squad Pedercini Racing.

Jamie Klein

Published: Feb 16, 2020, 10:46 AM

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Sandro Cortese, Barni Racing Team

Pedercini made the announcement on Sunday, just two weeks ahead of the start of the new season at Phillip Island.

It comes after Cortese lost his ride with the GRT Yamaha squad for 2020, which had originally left the former Moto3 and World Supersport champion without a ride.

However, the German rode for Ducati customer team Barni Racing in last month's pre-season tests at Jerez and Portimao, deputising for the injured Leon Camier.

Pedercini's announcement made no mention of Jordi Torres, who had been announced as one of the team's two riders last year but now appears to have been dropped.

Torres' name was conspicuously absent from the draft WSBK entry list released in January, which listed a single Kawasaki ZX-10RR for Pedercini despite the team having named both Torres and Lorenzo Savadori as part of its 2020 line-up.

It subsequently emerged that Savadori had been dropped due to sponsorship issues, the Italian going on to appear for Aprilia in the recent Sepang MotoGP test.

Torres won't be completely out of action in 2020 however as he has signed up to race for the Pons MotoE team, replacing ex-MotoGP frontrunner Sete Gibernau.

The announcement of Cortese at Pedercini leaves only one slot to fill on the 2020 WSBK entry list, which is the second satellite MIE Honda alongside Takumi Takahashi.

2020 WSBK line-up so far:

Team Riders Kawasaki

Jonathan Rea

Alex Lowes

Ducati

Chaz Davies

Scott Redding

Crescent Yamaha

Toprak Razgatlioglu

Netherlands Michael van der Mark

GRT Yamaha

Federico Caricasulo

Garrett Gerloff

Honda

Alvaro Bautista

Leon Haslam

BMW

Tom Sykes

Eugene Laverty

Puccetti Kawasaki

Xavi Fores

Pedercini Kawasaki

Germany Sandro Cortese

Orelac Kawasaki

Chile Maximilian Scheib

Barni Ducati

Leon Camier

Go Eleven Ducati

Michael Ruben Rinaldi

Motocorsa Ducati

Argentina Leandro Mercado

Ten Kate Yamaha France Loris Baz MIE Honda

Japan Takumi Takahashi

TBA

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