Cremona, Sprint: Payne wins convincingly, World Championship points for Werkstetter and Eder

Following Pau Arnos (France), Cremona (Italy) hosted another event for the sidecar teams on a circuit that had never before hosted a World Championship round. Accordingly, they eagerly seized the opportunity to take part in two private practice sessions on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning to familiarise themselves with the 3.768-kilometre circuit ahead of the official free practice sessions and qualifying.

In qualifying, Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau of Team Steinhausen Racing underlined their current dominance. With a time of 1:36.974 minutes, the World Championship leaders left the reigning world champions, Sam and Tom Christie (CES Performance), almost nine tenths of a second behind them. Ted and Vincent Peugeot (Seventy Four Racing) caused a surprise by securing third on the grid ahead of Pekka Päivärinta and Adam Christie (Hänni Racing) and Markus Schlosser and Lucas Krieg (Gustoil Racing Team).

Payne and Rousseau made the most of their pole position to take the lead straight away. After just the first lap, their mechanics informed them they had a lead of over one and a half seconds over their nearest challenger. Right up until the final lap, the British-French pair posted the fastest time of all the teams. It was only on the twelfth and final lap that they took it easy to celebrate their commanding victory. At the finish line, their lead stood at over 10.4 seconds.

In second place, the Christie brothers drove a solitary sprint race. They had no chance of catching the leaders this time, and they had nothing to fear from behind, as Peugeot/Peugeot and Päivärinta/Christie were embroiled in a battle for third place for the majority of the race. It was not until lap 4 that the Finnish-British team managed to decisively overtake the French father-and-son pairing, who, for their part, had no trouble keeping Schlosser/Krieg at bay.

Successful comeback and World Championship debut

For Patrick Werkstetter/Valentin Pirat (Sattler Motorsport/Bonovo Action), it was a successful return to the World Championship following a difficult qualifying session. The German, who had been sidelined for months following a knee injury, picked up seamlessly where he left off last year. Still in ninth place after the first lap, he fought his way up to sixth alongside his French co-driver.

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The battle for seventh place was won by the French pair Paul Leglise and Marjorie Cescutti (521 Competition). No matter how hard the Dutchman Bennie Streuer and his compatriot Manon Vissenberg tried, they couldn’t find a way past them.

Thomas Eder and Kevin Kölsch also put in a superb performance. For the German rider, this was only his second sidecar race ever, having made his debut just a week ago at the Red Bull Ring. Without making a single mistake, he finished ninth on his World Championship debut, leaving behind such experienced teams as Markus Venus and Thomas Hofer (ITW Racing), Wiggert Kranenburg and Loris Charteau, and Kevin Cable and Yann Druel (K&W Racing).

Results, Sidecar World Championship Sprint Race, Cremona, 8 August 2026