Paul Bonhomme (1st) was pleased to be atop the timesheets – and to discover the Rio de Janeiro race track was not as tricky as he had feared it would be. But the Englishman, who is leading the world championship standings with 22 points from the first two races, also warned that a fast track like Rio could pose a whole new set of challenges after the two technical tracks in Abu Dhabi and Perth at the start of the season. “It’s a lovely track to fly and there are no bits where you sit on the edge of your seat,” said Bonhomme. “But on these tracks there are a lot of areas where you can make good time or lose a lot of time. I think the major issue here is the sea birds that are in the holding area before you enter the track. You have to spend a lot of time looking out for the birds and if you’re not careful that an distract your thinking as you enter the track.”
Nigel Lamb (2nd) was delighted to keep the pressure up on Bonhomme with a very fast training run. Lamb, second overall in the championship with 18 points, would have actually been faster than Bonhomme had he not been booked for a 2-second penalty for incorrect knife-edge flying. Lamb, having the best year in his career with back-to-back top four finishes, is looking for more in Rio. “It’s a fantastic setting and the track conditions are really, really nice,” he said. But he warned against over-confidence based on the first training results, a lesson reinforced by some mild disappointment in Perth where he ended up only fourth after posting top training times all week. “It’s only Thursday and only the first training,” he said. “You shouldn’t read too much into the times. You don’t know what power settings people have got. Everyone’s just playing around with different lines.”
Nicolas Ivanoff (3rd) battled with the tiring noise of the jets at the Race Airport yesterday but with the help of some noise-reducing headphones was able to keep clear of distraction during today’s training. “Yesterday was just too much and the noise is really boring,” said the French pilot, who was on good form after posting a 1:23:53, which included a penalty second for insufficient smoke. “I did well today though because the plane is going well and the track is easy. There are 6 or 7 pilots here all within a second of each other. It’s not really a technical track but it is easy to lose speed.” Ivanoff claimed the stretch between Gates 6 and 7 was the place where pilots can really jeopardise their chances if they don’t get their line totally precise and smooth. “You must have a fast plane if you want to do well but you can also lose plenty of time if you don’t get it just right. You need to do everything to avoid drag. The long straight line before the vertical turning manoeuvre must be really precise.”
Sergey Rakhmanin (4th) shocked everyone with a great time in training but wasn’t getting carried away and could only muster up a small smile after the surprise 1:24:80 clean run. “There was no magic trick today,” said the Russian pilot, who consistently remains at the bottom of the timesheets. “I was much more focused on the procedures and the track. It looks more or less OK out there and I flew over the track first to look at it properly.” Rakhmanin was plagued with radio issues in Perth but these seem to have been rectified in time for the Rio race.
“It is working now and we don’t know what the reason was in Perth but I had to take the power back to idle just to hear the communication from the tower. That wasn’t good for concentration. Now I am focused again.”
Hannes Arch (5th) may have been holding back on power and certainly left his fellow competitors speculating about just how hard he was pushing in the first training session. Finishing up with a 1:24:81, the Austrian pilot also picked up a 2-second penalty for incorrect knife-edge. Despite slipping to 5th place Arch was enthused about racing in the Brazilian city this weekend and wasn’t upset with the result. “I have pretty good memories thinking back to Rio,” said the Team Abu Dhabi pilot. “It was basically the second race I did and surprisingly I got 4th place. I remember Kirby hit a pylon and I was in. I think it was the first big moment when I had a rush of motivation for the future. I saw that anything was possible.”
Matthias Dolderer (6th) continued to sit comfortably in the middle of the field as he finished just behind Arch with a clean 1:25 run “I had a really heavy airplane as my smoke tank was topped up because we were supposed to do a photoshoot,” explained German pilot Dolderer, who was already confident he knew where to save time. “It was maybe 20kg heavier than usual so I hope to be a little bit faster tomorrow. Like everyone else, I need to look at the video and work on that. I like the track very much – it’s fast and there is a real challenge between Gate 3 and 4. I’m still losing a lot of time in the 270 degree turn so I’ll have to pull harder there. Also the pull-up between the second last gate and the finish, that’s something I have to work on. I think I could gain time but I’m not sure if I can move up the field. We’ve got such a strong field this year and some of the planes are just faster.”
Matt Hall (7th) got his weekend off to an unusually good start. The Australian tends to use the early training sessions for experimenting before rising up through the ranks by race day, a strategy that worked to perfection in his home race in Perth when he got a career-best second place. “I’m happy generally with how it went,” said Hall, in a three-way draw for third place overall. “I went out there with a game plane of trying some different lines. So the first three or four training runs I only few half or quarter of a run. I did have an issue with a couple of warnings for flying low. So I need to review where I was doing that and what I was looking at – and to see if I was lower than planned or where I planned to be. So just a little bit of a review there.”
Alejandro Maclean (8th) managed a clean run in the Rio track during training and posted a 1:25:64 time, putting him halfway up the table. “The Rio track compared to Perth is relatively simple but interesting because it makes all the pilots focused on tiny fractions of a second,” said the Spaniard, who could do well on a more forgiving track. “Perth was tighter and more difficult so just getting through the track was a challenge. Here, the challenge is to squeeze and gain seconds. I do prefer this track. At this point of the season, a strong engine makes the difference and actually, the track proves that 6 of the teams are within just 1 second so the skills of the pilots are pretty much the same.”
Kirby Chambliss (9th) had pushed aside the frustration of the ongoing engine saga but didn’t feel particularly hopeful of a good result in Rio this week. “I have enough engine power to get on the podium but only if a few guys make mistakes and I hate to be in that position,” he confided, after a lukewarm 1:25:93 run in training. “Hopefully I won’t make any mistakes here. I flew pretty hard today and maybe I can take a second or two out of there. Without that 2-second penalty for exceeding the speed by 2 knots, we could probably be 4th or 5th maybe. I am really frustrated with the whole engine process, saying we’re gonna have it for the next race… but when you build up an engine like that with metal on metal surfaces, I always say you’re about 9/10. Michael (Goulian) got the 90% and we got the 10%. It’s true that our engines were pretty much identical – he got lucky, I didn’t.”
Pete McLeod (10th) felt the Rio track might not be totally suited to his Edge 540 and predicted that teams with more aerodynamic capability could do well in Rio. “Maybe we’ll see the MX aircraft do a little better on this track,” suggested the Canadian pilot. “It’s not really a pilot’s track and there are some long, straight runs, so maybe some of the guys that struggle with the tight tracks will be under a little less pressure here. I wish there was less time between gates – whether due to a faster airplane or smaller track. Now I’m getting some visuals about what the track looks like so hopefully there’ll be a full day of flying tomorrow so we’ll see how that carries over to race day.”
Peter Besenyei (11th) said that despite having raced here in 2007, the relocated track was a complete change from the previous one. “The weather in the track is also totally different and can change quickly so there is no advantage for anyone who has raced here before,” said the Hungarian pilot who was off the pace even with clean time. “The track looks quite easy and certainly not as difficult as Perth. It’s lovely here and I’m absolutely looking forward to the big crowds.”
Michael Goulian (12th) was enjoying the power from his newly fitted engine and wasn’t worried about picking up 4 seconds in penalties during training. “It was actually a really good training run,” said the American, who is residing in the blindingly bright Petrobras hangar for the Rio race. “For me, I flew two perfectly clean runs – for the judges, every time I pulled up out of the track they said 2 seconds, 4 seconds. It’s only rolling slightly too early or slightly too late and it doesn’t affect the time. I also gave away a little bit so I think I’ve got a 1:22 plane and we’ll look at the video to see where the little error was. It’s simple.”
Yoshi Muroya (13th) flew too high through Gate 12 and also incurred a single penalty for insufficient smoke. The Japanese pilot admitted that he needed to work a bit harder in the track. “It’s quite a straight track and it’s more about the aircraft than the pilot so we’re trying to push as hard as possible. I’m now just trying to fix myself,” he said. “You need much more power for this track. It’s much more about that here than in either Perth or Abu Dhabi. We’ll see tomorrow.”
Martin Sonka (14th) may have been at the bottom of the timesheets but says pre-race preparation has really helped there to be no real surprises in the track. “For this race I want to get through in the Wild Card and fly in the Top 12,” said the Czech rookie, who is already on his second engine after only two races. “Anything in the Top 12 would be a good result for me, getting some points would be great. We are just setting the engine and we’ve got a bit of a problem with low oil pressure, which I could see on the gauges when I was in the track. It’s not perfect but hopefully by tomorrow everything will be OK. This track is a bit faster and easier than the Perth track so there are places where you can think a bit more. I had a good feeling in the track after the first run.”
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