A wet track. A cool breeze. The challenging second sidecar practice session at the Hockenheimring offered no chance to improve on the times set the previous day in dry conditions. Although the teams were closely mixed in the standings, they were about 15 seconds slower per lap than on Friday.
In pole position for tonight’s sidecar race, at 6:20 p.m., Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau are ahead of Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries, and Pekka Päivärinta and Emanuelle Clement. In the rain, Schlosser fell behind the leaders. What if it’s wet again tonight? “Then we’ll start on new rain tires, and our situation will be completely different. In qualifying, we used the same tires we had at the Lausitzring again.”
Schlosser leads the IDM Sidecar class up to 600 cm³ by a comfortable margin. “Still, of course I want to win races. But I won’t take any unnecessary risks, because when it rains, my head kicks in and I start thinking about the equipment—I don’t want it to break.”
Pekka Päivärinta and Emanuelle Clement held onto third place ahead of Josef Sattler and Luca Schmidt. The Germans had even posted the second-fastest lap time during the wet practice session.
Things also went better for Bennie Streuer and Ilse de Haas in the rain. The Dutchman is really hoping the weather stays this way today. “This was the first time we’ve ever ridden the motorcycle in the rain, and it went really well. At first, I had to struggle a bit with the balance between the front and rear, but I can adjust it using the knob to the left of the handlebars. I can always do that on a straightaway. Now everything’s just right.”
Anna Burkard and Mike Roscher are leading the IDM Sidecar class (up to 1,000 cm³), but despite their perfect record so far, even another victory won't be enough for them to clinch the title early.
IDM Sidecar Hockenheimring, Qualifying
Q1 + Q2 Results, 600 cm³
1. Reeves/Rousseau (GBR/FR) Yamaha, 1:33.175 min.
2. Schlosser/Fries (CHE/CHE) Yamaha, + 0.089 sec.
3. Päivärinta/Clement, Yamaha, + 0.198 sec.
Q1 + Q2 Results, 1000 cm³
1. Roscher/Burkard (GER/SUI), BMW, 1:36.043 min
2. Kapeller/Billich (AUT/AUT), Suzuki, +2.461 sec
3. Lingen/Prudlik (GER/GER), Suzuki, +1.720 sec.