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Sandro Cortese grabs superb Moto3 pole at wet Sachsenring

Sandro Cortese produced a stunning late surge to deprive Danny Kent of a maiden Moto3 pole as heavy rain produced several shocks in a dramatic qualifying session at the Sachsenring

Cortese and his main championship rival Maverick Vinales, who between them have claimed six of the opening seven poles in 2012, found themselves down in 17th and 27th positions respectively with five minutes of the session to run.

Though conditions seemed to worsen in the final minutes, Cortese rallied and set about coming up the order. With three minutes to run he moved to fifth; with one minute, into top spot. It is his fourth pole of the season.

His late spurt was made all the better by Vinales' ongoing struggles, the Avintia FTR-Honda man and championship leader ending the session in 24th.

Cortese's gains cemented a one-two for Ajo KTM, with Kent - on provisional pole for much of the session - demoted into second.

Honda occupied the next three spots courtesy of Adrian Martin (Laglisse), Jack Miller (Caretta), and Jakub Kornfeil (Ongetta FTR), all of whom had held top spot at one stage during the 40-minute session.

Brad Binder (RW Kalex-KTM) edged out Louis Rossi (Team Germany FTR-Honda), Jonas Folger (Ioda) and team-mate Luis Salom in the race for sixth.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                Time       Gap
 1.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                  1m42.989s
 2.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                  1m44.474s  + 1.485s
 3.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse FTR-Honda       1m44.489s  + 1.500s
 4.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda            1m44.532s  + 1.543s
 5.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda        1m44.585s  + 1.596s
 6.  Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM             1m44.735s  + 1.746s
 7.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda        1m44.815s  + 1.826s
 8.  Jonas Folger         Ioda                     1m44.893s  + 1.904s
 9.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM             1m44.924s  + 1.935s
10.  Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda            1m44.985s  + 1.996s
11.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM            1m45.150s  + 2.161s
12.  Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM          1m45.372s  + 2.383s
13.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM          1m45.373s  + 2.384s
14.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse FTR-Honda       1m45.422s  + 2.433s
15.  Toni Finsterbusch    MZ Honda                 1m45.497s  + 2.508s
16.  Luca Gruenwald       Freudenberg Honda        1m45.625s  + 2.636s
17.  Jasper Iwema         FGR Honda                1m45.650s  + 2.661s
18.  Niccolò Antonelli    Gresini FTR-Honda        1m45.705s  + 2.716s
19.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR Honda  1m45.795s  + 2.806s
20.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                  1m45.939s  + 2.950s
21.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                  1m46.002s  + 3.013s
22.  Danny Webb           Mahindra                 1m46.046s  + 3.057s
23.  Simone Grotzkyj      Ambrogio Suter-Honda     1m46.173s  + 3.184s
24.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda        1m46.602s  + 3.613s
25.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda        1m46.772s  + 3.783s
26.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m46.951s  + 3.962s
27.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda       1m46.988s  + 3.999s
28.  Kevin Hanus          Sabo Honda               1m47.003s  + 4.014s
29.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Suter-Honda     1m47.265s  + 4.276s
30.  Marcel Schrotter     Mahindra                 1m47.311s  + 4.322s
31.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda       1m47.565s  + 4.576s
32.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR Honda  1m47.854s  + 4.865s
33.  Luigi Morciano       Ioda Italia              1m47.983s  + 4.994s
34.  Ivan Moreno          Laglisse FTR-Honda       1m49.978s  + 6.989s
35.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m51.012s  + 8.023s

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