Former Isle of Man resident Harry Payne raced to overall victory at round two of the FIM Sidecar World Championship at Estoril, Portugal on Sunday.
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In the process, he and Frenchman Kevin Rousseau closed the gap to 13 points behind Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt heading into a six-week break in the seven-round series.
The defending champions won the sprint race by 1.5 seconds from Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clément at Le Mans seven days earlier, but suffered a mechanical failure in the main race.
Playing catch-up in Portugal, Payne and Rousseau again topped qualifying but lost out to Schlosser/Schmidt by 0.04s in the sprint race.
The latter pair grabbed the lead in the main race but over-exuberance on the final lap saw them spin into a gravel trap.
They salvaged fourth, but the win went to Payne and Rousseau who are supported locally by Team Cubby, EICS and Kinell Racing.