Markus Schlosser takes first place in the Comeback / Sidecar World Championship

Markus Schlosser couldn’t have imagined a better return. The Swiss, who became world champion with Marcel Fries in 2021, ended his successful career at the end of 2022 after finishing second. But he couldn’t stand being restless for long. After the test trials in Val de Vienne went well, he decided to return to the sidecar world championship.

On Thursday and Friday morning, while still traveling with his usual passengers, Schlosser had to face the difficult situation of going back. Fries had to give somewhere. Normally the weekend would be over for him. It was a good thing that Luca Schmidt was left without a driver because Patrick Werkstetter was laid up with a stomach virus.

Although they had to get used to each other first, Schlosser/Schmidt had the second fastest time in the first qualifying session. In the second half of the race they managed to improve by more than half a second. This meant that they were able to push the leading British-French duo Harry Payne/Kevin Rousseau (Steinhausen Racing) out of position.

Just a few hundredths of a second behind them are Payne/Rousseau and two-time world champions Todd Ellis/Emmanuelle Clément. The Brit and his fellow French driver could only qualify on the second row of the grid on their penultimate lap at the 4.185km Circuit Bugatti, where they will line up alongside British brothers Sam and Tom Christie.

A clear upward trend can be seen in France for Dutchman Bennie Streuer and fellow German driver Kevin Kölsch, after being repeatedly slowed by technical problems last year. They qualified fifth on the grid, which they will share with the powerful Swiss Lukas Wyssen and his French co-driver Ema Salmon.

Zeittraining, Q1 and Q2
1. Schlosser/Schmidt (CH/D), 1:43.692 minutes. 2. Payne/Rousseau (GB/F), 1:43.712. 3. Ellis/Clément (GB/F), 1:43.761. 4. Christie/Christie (GB), 1:44.002. 5. Streuer/Kölsch (NL/D), 1:44.435. 6. Wyssen/Salmon (CH/F), 1:45.324.