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» 29,90 € |
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» 475,- € |
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MANGOLD LEADS FIELD DESPITE INJURY
06.04.2007 |
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The curtain was raised on the 2007 Red Bull Air Race season in Abu Dhabi with a number of surprises in Thursday’s qualifying seassion. American Mike Mangold had the fastest time from two qualifying rounds and is the favourite for Friday’s race. Austrian Hannes Arch, in his first race, just missed out of getting one of the 12 spots and will be forced to watch Friday’s race from the tribune.
“It’s a difficult course with a lot of tough corners and the competition is strong. So I’m obviously quite happy with the result,“ said Mike Mangold after clocking a time of 1:27.66 minutes on his second run, in which he skillfully avoided any time penalties. Mangold managed a smile despite the pain from a pinched nerve in his heavily bandaged shoulder. “I was able to forget about the pinched nerve in the cockpit. I hope I’ll be able to do that again in the finals.“ Hungary’s Peter Besenyei was close on his heels (0.60 seconds behind) after two seemingly flawless runs. “There’s always room for improvement. But this was only qualifying.“ Britain’s Paul Bonhomme was third, 2.07 seconds behind.
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Austria’s Hannes Arch suffered a rude awakening to his dream of qualifying for the main field at a Red Bull Air Race, which kick off its third season. The 37-year-old managed to avoid any time penalties - unlike another firstcomer, Sergey Rakhmanin of Russia. But Arch was unable to match the tactics of the 45-year-old Russian. “Sergey got hit with nine penalties as he went all out to stay on the course and keep his speed up. From a tactical point of view, it wasn’t a bad decision. I went for the more difficult approach, which was more sportsmanlike.“
The new elimination round format will start at 2:30 on Friday at the “Corniche“ in Abu Dhabi, where temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius are expected. On the first run the 12 remaining pilots will battle for eight spots in the ensuing knock-out rounds: quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the final.
Defending world champion Kirby Chambliss, who was a rather disappointing fifth in Thursday’s qualifying, said he would be ready to take on his compatriot Mangold on Friday. “I knew going in that this season was going to be a bloodbath and this just confirms it. The race is going to be another story.“
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Hyperlinks
»» www.redbullairrace.com
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