Pau, Qualifying: Payne/Rousseau 0.097 seconds ahead of Päivärinta/Christie

It took Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau (Steinhausen Racing) just four laps to set the fastest lap on the 3.030-kilometre Circuit Européen Pau Arnos in the height of summer. For the 2024 world champions, this is already their third pole position of the season, following those at Le Mans and Grobnik/Rijeka.

In the races, however, the British-French duo will face a tough battle with Pekka Päivärinta andAdam Christie from Team Hänni Racing, as the experienced Finn and his British co-driver – who had dominated free practice – were just 97 thousandths of a second slower.

Starting from the second row of the grid this evening (6.40 pm CEST) and tomorrow in the late afternoon (5.45 pm CEST) will be the reigning world champions Sam and Tom Christie (CES Performance) and Markus Schlosser/Lucas Krieg (Gustoil Sidecar Racing). However, their gap to the fastest in practice – 0.723 and 1.569 respectively – is already considerable.

Places 5 to 7 are also occupied by former world champions: Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clément, Bennie Streuer and Manon Vissenberg, and Tim Reeves and Melanie Farnier (Carl Cox Motorsport). Behind them are the local heroes Paul Leglise/Marjorie Cescutti (521 Competition) and Manuel Moreau/Alice Roba (KM Side).

The only German-speaking team, Germany’s Markus Venus and his Swiss co-driver Thomas Hofer (ITW Racing), set the eleventh-fastest practice time behind the Australian brothers Corey and Danyon Turner. As was the case in Rijeka, Paul Kirby and Ema Salon (Carl Cox Motorsport KRT) failed to set a time, but will still be allowed to start the races from the back of the grid because they demonstrated their pace in free practice.