Hannes Arch (1st) made good in Q2 after a picking up a penalty in his first run. Showing dominance in the track with a 1:20:44, the Austrian knew just how important that single point collected today really was. “I am really happy today because we need every point to catch up with Paul Bonhomme,” said Arch, now sitting 7 points below the world champ. “My engine was working well, as was my team. I could perform and fly smart today. I was just trying to hit the fastest time in the track in the second Qualifying run and that tactic went well so I am really motivated for tomorrow.”
Special praise was given to Arch’s technician, Vito Wyprächtiger, who has helped the team to produce serious levels of engine power this season. “The special thing about our Lycon is the working together of the manufacturer and my technician Vito, who the engine guru in my team. That’s why we have a dead good engine. I don’t know if the engine is much better than Paul’s but it’s definitely not weaker. He is my biggest competition tomorrow and showed really fast net times out there.”
Nigel Lamb (2nd) came painfully close to picking up the point today with two excellent runs in Qualifying but was beaten by Arch at the last moment. “I am actually quite disappointed but I still had a good day out there,” said Lamb (1:21:17), who is currently in second place in the overall standings. “My target in Q1 was to just post a solid time. All that really counts is to try and get the points. The aeroplane is going well but I’ve got to find something somewhere to catch up.”
With a string of encouraging results under his belt the British pilot said he finally felt he was at one with the MXS-R race plane this season. “I went into the Doldrums with the MX project in late 2006 and that’s the truth,” said Lamb, who championed the carbon fibre machine. “Now is really the first time I have the plane beautifully set up and I love to fly it. I don’t want to change anything on it – I would love more power – but the handling is so good. I feel comfortable in it now, set up as it is.”
Paul Bonhomme (3rd) left Qualifying with a few questions raised about his own set-up and also the tactics of some of the other teams. “I’m not struggling at all with the track actually but we have been wondering about our engine set-up,” said Bonhomme, who was putting on a brave face after slipping to third today with a 1:21:62. “We’re also wondering about the racing lines. It’s clear that Hannes has got a slightly different line on a part of the track which I’m not totally convinced is the correct way. I’m surprised he hasn’t been picked up on it yet. I’m sorry the point when to Hannes but then on the other Nigel is closer to me in the points so it’s swings and roundabouts.”
Matt Hall (4th) wasn’t too worried about finishing in fourth as he’d continued to experiment in the Rio track during Qualifying. “Hopefully we’ll find a little bit more out there tomorrow,” said Hall, who posted a 1:21:98. “I used my standard plan and went out in Q1 to get a good, safe and solid run. I did that and then used Q2 to do some more experimenting and to set the engine up a little differently. I also took a few different lines to see what would happen. Hopefully I can put a few of these things together tomorrow and do a bit better. I’m not just measuring times between gates but also acceleration so I can look at the lines in the track for time and acceleration for power.”
Kirby Chambliss (5th) battled on and posted a respectable 1:22:88 clean run in Qualifying. “It was really nice in the track and hardly any wind out there,” said Chambliss, who admitted he’d be happy to race in tough conditions in Rio as that could hinder the less experienced race pilots. “I just went out in the first run and went for it. I was close to a couple of things but I didn’t hit them, so great. As it turns out we did OK with a good time so I’m very happy.”
Nicolas Ivanoff (6th) flew both Qualifying runs without any penalties but was off the pace with a 1:23:42. “I exceeded the speed limit on the first run but the second time it was better,” said Ivanoff, who has reverted to a standard exhaust configuration for Rio. “During the two first races the exhausts weren’t great for visibility and there was smoke in the cockpit. The plane felt like it was shaking and I was never sure if I was close to the stall. We decided to change to the normal one.”
Pete McLeod (7th) was luckily back in control for Q2 (1:23:42) after a chaotic earlier run. “I think it was surprising rather than disappointing,” said McLeod when asked about his penalty-marred Q1 run. “I had to fly clean in the second round but I think it was a slower net time. It’s a tough one as I’ve got to push it to get into the Super 8s tomorrow. It doesn’t do me much good to put a safe run down but at the same time it’s one of those tracks where height management is the key. After being too low yesterday I was too high today in the 270-degree turn. That’s where my problems were.”
Michael Goulian (8th) looked to be flying too conservatively today, posting a 1:23:58 in Qualifying. The American pilot with the new engine was planning to evaluate the performance of the Lycoming this evening and said: “We flew a good time yesterday so we’re just looking to put that time back down again. We’re starting to look at the engine again to make sure it’s still healthy. It was a perfectly clean run as far as we were concerned but we just appeared to be missing a little bit of time. I just want to make sure it’s running well and everything’s OK. Then we’ll just analyse it. Maybe I stretched a line here and there.”
Alejandro Maclean (9th) secured a spot in the Top 12 but was scratching his head about a perceived lack of power. “I am trying everything I can, as hard as I can and as tight to the gates as possible,” said Maclean who finished with a 1:25 in Qualifying. “We can’t figure out if we have a lack of power – which is the most probable cause – but we are trying as hard as we can. The plane is flying great and these winglets are working great which was proven yesterday. When I changed the winglets to the other ones I lost 4 seconds so I reckon that I just don’t have the power that some of the other guys have.”
Matthias Dolderer (10th) was not satisfied with his performance at all in Qualifying even though the German pilot secured a place in the Top 12 tomorrow. “I’m happy I’m in the Top 12 but not really satisfied that I’m in tenth place,” he said. “I had 2 penalty seconds in both runs and I flew some different lines to yesterday but that wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. In the past two races I got the same points but I don’t know if I can do it here in Rio. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain so I’m not sure how I’ll fly. Maybe I will change lines again.”
Sergey Rakhmanin (11th) flies in the Wild Card tomorrow after only managing to squeeze a 1:25:53 today in Q2. “We feel that we can’t reach the best result here in this track,” said Rakhmanin, who picked up 8 penalty seconds in his Q1 run. “Usually I can improve by a few seconds from the beginning to Qualification but now I cannot reach the results from the first flights. I still have a problem but we haven’t found out what yet.”
Peter Besenyei (12th) couldn’t hold it together out in the Rio track today and picked up penalties in both Qualifying runs. Shutting himself away in his hangar to thoroughly study video and track data, the Hungarian pilot was not in the mood to talk after his flights. His team coordinator Sandor Kordas spoke on his behalf and said: “Peter is really not very happy about his flights today and he knows he made mistakes so is feeling annoyed with himself. We have work to do before tomorrow’s race.”
Yoshi Muroya (13th) is another Wild Card casualty after lacking speed in Qualifying. Posting a 1:26:05 clean run, the Japanese pilot said there could be issues with his engine. “The second run was almost OK but time-wise it’s really slow,” explained Muroya, who also wants to improve his race line ahead of tomorrow’s race. “We’re checking the engine now. During training we felt it was slow, especially on the straights. We’re going to fix it and go for it tomorrow.”
Martin Sonka (14th) expected to fly in tomorrow’s Wild Card and said that despite posting a slow time of 1:28:55, he had made progress from training. “I’m not really disappointed,” Sonka said. “We still have to accelerate a little more to be faster but we are happy. I flew faster than yesterday so tomorrow should be faster again. I’m the only rookie flying here so I have no problem being last for now but of course I don’t want to be last all the time. I am very motivated as I don’t actually want to be last so I have an incentive to be first. I have big hopes for the future to just keep getting faster.”
Follow all the action from Rio on the Red Bull Air Race Live Blog.
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