Race Team News - Qualifying, New York
Hannes Arch (1st) was unstoppable in Qualifying taking the single point up for grabs with a 1:08:18 on his first run through the track. He could almost afford to throw away the second run (1:14), which included two-seconds in penalties. “I would be lying if I said it wasn’t all out there now,” said the Team Abu Dhabi pilot, openly admitting that he had gone all-out in Q1. “I think I did a perfect first run and only a few small things I could top. I only hope Paul isn’t finding out the same things. I probably need the stress of worrying about that though. I’ve been trying to figure out for the past three years whether I need stress and pressure or if I need to calm down. I just try to feel comfy and find the right mind set-up. Sometimes it doesn’t work but obviously today it did. It’s always important to win and I just try to not take it to seriously from a personal point of view but from a competitive perspective, of course I want to win.”
Paul Bonhomme (2nd) just couldn’t muster up the extra 0.52 pace to catch up with Arch and had to make do with the runner-up spot. The British pilot flew consistent 1:08 times in both sessions and was confident he’d found the right lines. “We’re very happy with our first run which was the closest anyone got to Hannes,” said Bonhomme. “Second time we went out and improved on that. We’re now analysing and we’ll improve again tomorrow. If we can take a positive from today it’s that Hannes took a bit of extra pressure on the second run and made a real disaster of it. We’re feeling pretty relaxed and I enjoyed the flying today. It’s very noticeable that it’s the weekend as there were lots of boats out there on the river – yesterday it was just me, the Statue of Liberty and the track.”
Pete McLeod (3rd) got his best Qualifying result of his career with a 1:11:23 clean run in Q1, despite being far off the leaders’ pace. “I don’t have another three-seconds in the plane,” said the Canadian. “There’s also a technology and experience gap for sure. I’m happy with the net times, which are faster than I thought I’d be able to run on this track. All the lessons learned from training yesterday I used today as more training and I’m happy with the results. I pretty well executed things as planned. There’s not a whole lot I can change or want to for tomorrow.”
Kirby Chambliss (4th) was in a jovial mood after Qualifying, moving up to finish in Q2 with a 1:11:71 clean run. “Fourth is not my favourite spot, where did you hear that? First is my favourite!” joked Chambliss, who has made a habit of just missing out of the top three this year with the exception of Windsor earlier this month where he was 3rd. “We’re not getting the performance we’d hoped for with the new engine. We de-tuned it a little bit but I didn’t think it would be that far down. I’ve just got to put down a good time and hope some of these guys make mistakes but we’re almost four seconds down. That’s a long way.”
Michael Goulian (5th) admitted he had little more to give and was accepting of his narrow shot at the podium tomorrow. “With the old engine in there a 1:12 even is better than I thought I could do,” said the American Team Petrobras pilot, who shaved a second off from Q1 to Q2. “If I’m going to get a 1:11 tomorrow, it’ll be very risky. On the first run I’m going to try to do a 1:12:5 and then in the Super 8, if I’m lucky enough to be there, I’ll just try to lay the hammer down to see if I can do better. I think teams one through three will be 1:08 to 1:10s and someone will make a mistake, like Nigel did today. You just can’t have two-second penalties or it ruins it no matter how fast you are.”
Nigel Lamb (6th) blew his chances of the single point after a great start in training yesterday. The British pilot in the Team Breitling MXS-R was unhappy back on the ground with the penalties picked up in both runs. “I said to the team before I went flying, it doesn’t matter if you’re 2nd or 6th – it’s not 1st,” he shrugged. “There are a few things I can do for tomorrow and I need to look at my lines. I didn’t fly fantastically well today, that’s for sure. Maybe I took the wrong approach in some parts of the track, maybe I’m quite good on the lines but some of the other guys have upped their engine performance. I stalled halfway through my second lap and I was quite surprised to have even got a 1:12. But I am stunned with the 1:08s.”
Matthias Dolderer (7th) was irritated with his performance in Qualifying even with two clean runs. He mustered up a few words back at the Race Airport but his comments were unconvincing. “I’m looking forward to a sunny day here tomorrow but I won’t be at the beach, I’ll be flying in New York over the Hudson River – one of the best things you can do in life,” said the German pilot flying the new Edge 540 V3. “I’m not satisfied with my performance but let’s just go out there and have fun. I have no idea what time the aeroplane is capable of.”
Peter Besenyei (8th) continued to iron out the creases in his new Corvus Racer and flew two consistent runs in Qualifying. “The double knife-edge is where you can gain or lose time,” agreed the Hungarian pilot, who put down a 1:12:48 clean time. “You have to find the ideal line. The time was more or less the same for each run and I was very constant, stable and without mistakes. I was happy with that and hopefully I can do that again tomorrow. As you can see the plane is getting better and better ¬– if I can get into the Super 8 that will be great.”
Alejandro Maclean (9th) was focused on improving his technique in the track for the race after only managing a 1:13:25 in Qualifying. The Spanish pilot had identified a key area where he was losing huge amounts of time and hoped to shed some light after careful analysis. “The double knife-edge is definitely where I am losing time, up to four-seconds which is bad,” said Maclean. “On the other hand it’s really good as I can focus on this specific thing. If I can improve this, I think I could do a 1:09, which is really good. The rest of the flying is good, straight and accurate. I got a penalty in the second flight but that was for anticipating the turn.”
Nicolas Ivanoff (10th) slipped to the bottom of the table after picking up penalties in both Qualifying runs but had some curious thoughts on the day’s events. “Without the penalties I actually did better than yesterday… but without penalties we can rebuild the world,” mused the Frenchman who posted a 1:13:68. “I should be in the top three but we have the two ‘extraterrestes’ (extraterrestrials) Paul and Hannes. The penalty was really close but I turned a little bit too late in gate 5. I can still reach the Final 4 if… well ‘if’ a lot of things.”
Martin Sonka (11th) tried to shave off extra time today in the track and paid the price with penalties in both Qualifying runs. The rookie from the Czech Republic knew where he’d gone wrong and finished with a 1:17:99 including the two-seconds in penalties. “I tried to be a bit faster and then of course there were penalties,” he said. “I have a good feeling in the track and I’ll try to fly the same in the track tomorrow but without the penalties. I won’t push too much as I really want – and need – to fly clean. Maybe not so fast as both the plane and pilot is not fast enough to compete with the other guys. Instead we have to wait for their mistakes.”
Sergey Rakhmanin (12th) was at a loss for words about yet another bad day at the office. The Russian pilot picked up 10 seconds in penalties in Q1, reducing this to just two-seconds on his later run to finish with a 1:18:23. “I am more or less happy with my lines but the time is too slow. I think there is something slowing the plane down and I feel that there is just no speed. Maybe it’s my fault but we need to look into this. We have one cylinder which is reading totally different to the others,” he said.
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