Hannes Arch of Austria came from behind to win the first Red Bull Air Race World Championship race of the year in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with a scintillating triumph over Britain’s Paul Bonhomme on a sizzling hot day in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Nicolas Ivanoff of France stormed onto the podium with third place while Britain’s Nigel Lamb established himself as a force to be reckoned with this year, taking fourth. Australia’s Matt Hall, one of four rookies in the championship this year, had an outstanding performance in his very first race, grabbing a sensational fifth place on the challenging 6.6-km course of Air Gates set up just above the turquoise waters of the Arabian Gulf.
Arch, the defending world champion, saved his best for last, blazing to victory to the delight of the large crowd of spectators watching from the rim of the Corniche with a stunning time of 1:24.60 - a full 0.89 seconds faster than Bonhomme’s outstanding effort just moments earlier. Arch had stumbled in the Super 8 session and only just qualified for the Final 4 in fourth place. Arch, who also collected one championship point with his victory in Friday’s Qualifying session, then opened up his throttle in the final on a day when temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius to pick up the 12 points. He will take a three-point lead over Bonhomme (10 points) to the next race in San Diego.
“There were always doubts in my mind because those other three guys have been flying so fast,” said Arch. “If you make the tiniest of mistakes against Paul, Nicolas or Nigel, you’ll lose. I was able to focus everything on the last run and put all my energy into it. The tactic worked out, fortunately.” Arch had struggled in the training sessions earlier in the week before pulling out the stops to win Qualifying on Friday. He was again trailing Bonhomme, Ivanoff and Lamb on the time sheets in the penultimate round, the Super 8, before he let loose and pulled off a flawless run through the obstacle course of 20-metre high inflatable pylons set up as 17 Air Gates on barges.
Bonhomme, who had won here in Abu Dhabi last year and led the championship for most of the 2008 season before stumbling late in the year to finish second to Arch, was surprised that his fabulous Final 4 time of 1:25.49 was not enough for the victory. “It felt like a pretty good run,” Bonhomme said. “I was actually quite pleased with that.”
Ivanoff, who took delivery of his Edge 540 just four weeks ago, was elated to be back on the podium after spending most of last year in the lower half of the field. “It’s really a surprise because I only got the plane one month ago and you can’t really expect a result like that,” he said. “It’s a new plane. The technicians were working through the night for the last week to get it ready for the race. It’s a good plane. I need to avoid making so many mistakes. But if you want to go fast, you have to take risks.”
Another rookie, Matthias Dolderer of Germany, also had a bright start to his Red Bull Air Race World Championship career, taking 11th place and collecting his first championship point. Dolderer had started the week cautiously and seemed to improve with each training and racing session.
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