Cremona, Main Race: Christie/Christie win, Payne/Rousseau retire

As the heatwave in early August had the area around the “Angelo Bergamonti” Circuit firmly in its grip, the main race of the Sidecar World Championship was shortened from the original 20 laps to 18, following consultation with the 18 teams who had travelled to the event.

As was to be expected, the pole-sitters and winners of the sprint race – Britain’s Hary Payne and his French passenger Kevin Rousseau from Team Steinhasen Racing – immediately took the lead. With consistently fast lap times, they quickly pulled away from their pursuers. At the halfway stage, the 2024 world champions were leading by almost seven seconds.

A thrilling battle for second place broke out between the defending champions Sam and Tom Christie (CES Performance) and Ted and Vincent Peugeot (Seventy Four Racing), which was later joined by Pekka Päivärinta and Adam Christie (Hänni Racing) to make it a three-way fight. Meanwhile, Markus Schlosser and Kevin Krieg (Gustoil Sidecar Racing) were doing their laps in isolation in fifth place.

Behind the top five sidecars, several small groups had formed. Patrick Werkstetter and Valentin Pirat (Sattler Motorsport/Bonovo Action) were up against Bennie Streuer and Manon Vissenberg, Corey and Danyon Turner (Turner Bros Racing) versus Paul Leglise/Marjorie Cescutti (521 Competition), and Thomas Eder/Kevin Kölsch versus Markus Venus/Thomas Hofer (ITW Racing).

Technical fault ends Payne/Rousseau’s race

From the twelfth lap onwards, Payne/Rousseau’s lap times suddenly began to slow down. Attentive observers had spotted a faint trail of smoke. From the 15th lap onwards, the five-time winners of the season failed to return to the start-finish line.

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Christie/Christie thus took the lead ahead of Peugeot/Peugeot, who were driving the race of their lives, and Päivärinta/Christie. Schlosser/Krieg were comfortably in fourth place ahead of Streuer/Vissenberg. Whilst Werkstetter/Pirat were forced to retire their car due to a fault, Eder/Kölsch had set their sights on Venus/Hofer.

As the race organisers felt compelled to send the safety car onto the track on lap 15, the order remained unchanged until the finish. Following the retirement of Payne/Rousseau, the top three teams are once again closely grouped after eight of twelve races.