Harrison Payne (ARS Yamaha) and Kevin Rousseau are the 2026 FIM Sidecar World Champions. The British-French pairing \u2013 who won the title together in 2024 \u2013 clinched the crown with victory in the Sprint race at the sixth and deciding round staged at Oschersleben in Germany before signing off with their ninth victory of the season when they dominated the main race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking the title with a forty-point winning margin from defending champions Sam and Thomas Christie (LCR Yamaha) from Great Britain before a further nine-point gap back to third-placed Pekka P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta (ARS Yamaha) and Adam Christie, the writing was on the wall as early as Qualification when the British-French pairing were almost a full second clear of the chasing pack.
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Starting the weekend with a twenty-five-and-a-half-point advantage, Payne-Rousseau led into the first turn of the Sprint race chased by the French son and father pairing of Ted and Vincent Peugeot (LCR Yamaha), Christie\/Christie and Swiss star Markus Schlosser (LCR Yamaha) and his German passenger Lucas Krieg with the Finnish\/British pairing of P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta\/Christie holding an initial fifth.
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As Payne\/Rousseau began to open a gap, the Peugeots and the Christies waged war over second position while, a little further back, an equally fierce battle was developing between Schlosser\/Krieg and P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta\/Christie for fourth.
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Buoyed up by their first podium together two rounds ago in Italy, Peugeot\/Peugeot continued to press the soon-to-be champions and even began to reduce the deficit in the closing stages of the twelve-lap race. Although were unable to get close enough to make a move and finished just under two seconds behind before a gap of around eleven-and-a-half seconds to the Christie brothers.
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Despite race-long pressure, the experienced P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta \u2013 who has signalled his intention to retire from top-flight racing \u2013 and Christie were unable to find their way around Schlosser\/Krieg and ended the race five points adrift of the by now former champions in the contest for the silver medal.
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Determined to sign off with a champions’ performance, Payne\/Rousseau led the field from the start of Sunday’s twenty-one-lap Main race ahead of Peugeot\/Peugeot, the Christie brothers and Schlosser\/Krieg.
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However, at the end of lap one Schlosser\/Krieg span into a gravel trap and although they kept going there was significant damage to their outfit’s bodywork and two laps later, when the safety car came out after Peugeot\/Peugeot had crashed, the Swiss racer \u2013 FIM Sidecar World Champion Rider in 2021 \u2013 steered into the pits and did not return.
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This handed third to five-time FIM Sidecar World Champion Rider P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta and Christie from Australian brothers Corey and Danyon Turner (ARS Yamaha) who have been building confidence in their debut year in the series and equalled their season-best finish of sixth in the opening race.
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When the safety car pulled off, Payne\/Rousseau immediately set about restoring their advantage and wasted little time in establishing a lead that at one point was over ten seconds before the Christie brothers \u2013 who were looking good for series silver in second \u2013 reduced it to a little over eight-and-a-half seconds when the chequered flag came out.
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Less than half-a-second further back, P\u00e4iv\u00e4rinta\/Christie came home in third to secure the bronze medal with the Turner brothers clearly delighted with a career-best finish of fourth ahead of the German\/French pairing of Patrick Werkstetter (ARS Yamaha) and Valentin Pirat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harrison Payne (ARS Yamaha) and Kevin Rousseau are the 2026 FIM Sidecar World Champions. The British-French pairing \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[311,332],"class_list":["post-16369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-motorsports","tag-sidecar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t