At Brno Sandro Cortese took his third pole position in 2018 World Supersport Championship. The Czech track seems to perfectly suit the German rider’s style: here “Sandrissimo” scored podium finishes in both Moto3 (2012, when he won the title) and Moto2 (2014) and what we’ve seen so far, apart from FP2 crash, proves that the Kallio Yamaha rider loves Automotodrom Brno.
Cortese achieved the pole position with a lap in 2’02.670 and so he was six tenths of a second faster than Randy Krummenacher. The Swiss rider forgot the stomach bug he suffered at both Imola and Donington and at Brno he will start the race in second position (2’03.274) in front of Nerds Racing Team’s Jules Cluzel (2’03.323).
Opening the second row will be Raffaele De Rosa. Despite a late crash at Turn 9, the MV Agusta rider was once again the best non-Yamaha rider and tomorrow he will share the second row with GRT Yamaha duo Lucas Mahias–Federico Caricasulo. Good seventh place for Ayrton Badovini, followed by Anthony West, Sheridan Morais and Thomas Gradinger. 11th and 12th place for Kyle Smith (back to CIA Landlord Insurance Honda from this round) and Hikari Okubo.
Smith and Okubo reached Superpole 2 after passing Superpole 1, where they beated reigning ESS Champion Hannes Soomer. 19th place for Alex Baldolini: the rider from Cesena has just come back after last year’s left-hand injury and tomorrow he will open an all-Italian seventh row followed by Luigi Morciano and Michael Canducci.
In conclusion, we remark that Eemeli Lahti ranked 14th and was the best ESS rider. The young Finnish, only Suzuki rider in World Supersport, was just three cents of a second faster than Rob Hartog.
Photo Credit: Philippe Damiens