NEW YORK - Hannes Arch of Austria posted the fastest time in training on Friday morning ahead of the weekend’s Red Bull Air Race in New York, beating Britain’s Nigel Lamb and championship leader Paul Bonhomme in the first timed training session on the race track set up on the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.
Arch, who has a three-race winning streak coming into the U.S. Red Bull Air Race, stopped the clock in 1:11.75 in his Edge 540 V3, which was 0.27 faster than Team Breitling’s Lamb (1:12.02) in his MXS-R and 0.42 quicker than Bonhomme (1:13.17), the defending champion. American Kirby Chambliss, the 2006 world champion, took fourth while Germany’s Matthias Dolderer in his new Edge 540 V3 was fifth.
The pilots generally use the first training sessions to get an initial look at the track, test the racing lines and get a feel for the wind conditions. They only use the timings in the first session as a rough indication of where they stand before opening up the throttle in the final training sessions that precede the Qualifying on Saturday.
“I’m happy I could smooth things out,” Arch, the 2008 champion, said after his first run. “The airplane is working good. There’s a lot of pressure in New York. There’s lots of media and lots of talking about the race. You’re flying in front of Manhattan. I think the key here is just to stay calm. That was working for me today and that’s why I’m quite happy with the first run. I think the key for me is just to fly smooth and don’t stress out.”
Thursday’s two training sessions were cancelled due to high winds of up to 40 mph. A second training session follows on Friday afternoon ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying for Sunday’s race.
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