The 2025 FIM Sidecar World Championship concludes this coming weekend (3-5 October) at Oschersleben in central Germany and with a twenty-three-point advantage at the top of the standings, defending champions Harrison Payne (ARS Yamaha) and Kevin Rousseau will start as favourites to retain their title, although it is by no means a done deal.
- FIM Sidecar World Championship concludes at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
- Defending champions Harrison Payne and Kevin Rousseau start as favourites
- Christie brothers chase twenty-three-point deficit at seventh and final round
With twenty-five points up for grabs for a win and twenty for second, the British/French pairing could sew up the crown in Saturday’s twelve-lap Sprint race, but second-placed Sam and Thomas Christie (LCR Yamaha) will be determined to take the fight down to the wire. However, following six hard-fought rounds the British brothers have yet to beat Payne/Rousseau this season and are only still within striking distance of the lead because the reigning champions have suffered two mechanical DNFs.
Although a long-shot for the title, the Swiss/German pairing of Markus Schlosser (LCR Yamaha) and Luca Schmidt still have a mathematical chance of becoming champions and even if they fail to overturn the forty-one-point deficit to the leaders they could still play a role in the eventual destination of the 2025 crown.
With eight race wins and two second-placed finishes from twelve starts, there is no doubt that Payne/Rousseau have been the dominant force this season, although two DNFs while leading – the first coming at the opening round at Le Mans in France in April with the second occuring two months later at round four at Most in the Czech Republic – have prevented them from wrapping up the championship early.
The Christie brothers have shown amazing consistency this season and the only time they have failed to finish on a race podium came last time out when they were fourth in the Sprint race when the series paid its second visit to the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands in mid-September. This consistency gave them a share of the championship lead with Schlosser/Schmidt following round four at Most in June before Payne/Rousseau regained control with a double win in mid-August when the series visited Assen’s ‘Cathedral of Speed’ for the first time this season.
The leading three teams have monopolised the podium places to such an extent that only the Finnish/British pairing of Pekka Päivärinta (LCR Yamaha) and Adam Christie, the all-French crew of Paul Leglise (LCR Yamaha) and Marjorie Cescutti and British wild cards Lewis Blackstock (LCR Yamaha) and Oscar Lawrence have also recorded top-three finishes this year.
A five-time champion rider, Päivärinta – with the third of the Christie brothers in the chair – has had to call on all his years of experience to keep the top three crews in sight and although he currently sits a safe fourth in the standings, sixty-eight points ahead of two-time champions Todd Ellis (LCR Yamaha) and Emmanuelle Clement, his chances of climbing any higher up the leaderboard are extremely slim.
The points-scoring action from the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben gets under way on Saturday (4 October) with the twelve-lap Sprint race at 16:30 (local time) followed by the twenty-one-lap Main race on Sunday (5 October) at 14:35 (local time).
Fans can download the Sportity App and use the password FIMSidecar2025 to access all the latest news.