In the first stage of the season, the sidecar drivers of Lielbārži show respectable competition for the leading crews

In the first race, the 16-year-old Lielbarži brothers were in second position after the first lap, behind only the representatives of the Netherlands and Belgium, Gert van Werven and Robes de Veen. The Latvian crew slipped to third place after only ten laps, but after one more lap they were in fourth place, where they finished the first race.

On the other hand, in the second race, Lielbärži did not have a successful start, after which the Latvian crew ranked in tenth position. In the continuation, the representatives of Latvia managed to climb up to the seventh place, but then the handle of the canter Bruno Lielbārža broke, which made the trip to continue more cautiously and finish in 17th position.

In the sum of both races, Belgian Marvin Vanluchen celebrated the victory in the first stage together with Frenchman Nicolas Mousset, who were the best in both races. Second place went to the British crew of Brett Wilkinson/Joe Millard, with van Werwen and de Veen rounding out the top three.

Lielbarži ranked 11th overall with 22 points.

Also, the women’s crew from France Sofia Duboska and Klementine Tamree competed for the first time in this stage. They took 27th and 25th place in the races, but in the overall ranking they ranked 29th in the competition of 30 crews.

The day before, there was also a qualifying race, in which Lielbarži took third place in their qualifying group, behind only the duo of Vanluchen/Muse and the Dutch team Kuhn Hermans/Ben van den Bogart.

This season, the world championship has 14 rounds.