The sidecar teams in the FIM World Championship and the International German Motorcycle Championship (IDM) kicked off their next round with the first qualifying session at Assen. Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt (Team Schlosser/LCR Yamaha) came out on top. With a lap time of 1:46.236, they gave the “Cathedral of Speed” their first promising glimpse of what to expect this weekend from the current World Championship leaders. “After we retired in the final lap at Schleiz due to an electronic problem, we’ve spent the last two weeks working extensively on the sidecar to eliminate any potential faults,” Markus Schlosser said afterward. It’s common for electronic glitches to occur at any time, “but in the World Championship races, I want to avoid them as much as possible,” Schlosser continued, having completed a total of 25 laps in practice on Friday alone. There was no sign of any electronic glitches whatsoever.
Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau (Steinhausen Racing / ARS Yamaha) were the second-fastest. They were just 0.211 seconds behind the leaders. This means he’s not only hot on Schlosser’s heels, but also well on his way to achieving his goal for the weekend: bringing home at least one victory. Harry Payne is getting some extra family support in Assen from his father, who surprised him with a visit on Thursday.
Making their first appearance of the year are two familiar faces: Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes (Carl Cox Motorsport / ARS Yamaha). Sporting new livery and a new sponsor, the eight-time world champion and his co-driver finished in third place in their yellow car. Their fastest lap time was 1:46.912 minutes.
All three Christie brothers finished in fourth and fifth place. Leading the pack were Sam and Tom Christie (Hannafin/LCR Yamaha), closely followed by Pekka Päivärinta and Adam Christie (Hänni Racing/ARS Yamaha). Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kölsch (Team Streuer/ARS Yamaha) started in sixth place but returned to the pit lane after just seven laps. Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement (Team Ellis/Clement Racing/LCR Yamaha) finished in seventh place.
Swiss rider Lukas Wyssen finished in eighth place with his French junior rider Ema Salmon (Team Gustoil Sidecar Racing/LCR Yamaha). Two German teams—Patrick Werkstetter and Valentin Pirat (Team Bonovo Action/Sattler Motorsport/ARS Yamaha) and Lennard Göttlich and Lukas Krieg (Bonovo Action Junior-Team ADAC Sachsen e.V./ARS Yamaha)—rounded out the top 10.
The second qualifying session will take place on Saturday at 12:20 p.m., followed by the first race at 5:00 p.m.
Results: FIM Sidecar World Championship, Q1
- SCHLOSSER / SCHMIDT (CHE/GER)
- PAYNE / ROUSSEAU (GBR/FRA)
- REEVES/WILKES (GBR/GBR)
- CHRISTIE / CHRISTIE (GBR/GBR)
- PÄIVÄRINTA / CHRISTIE (FIN/GBR)
- STREUER / KÖLSCH (NLD/DEU)
- ELLIS / CLÉMENT (GBR/FRA)
- WYSSEN / SALMON (CHE/FRA)
- WERKSTETTER/PIRAT (GER/FRA)
- DIVINE / WAR (GER/GER)
All other results are available here.