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» 614,- € |
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BONHOMME TAKES TOP
11.05.2007 |
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Britain’s Paul Bonhomme (Team Matador) kept up his sterling form by claiming the top spot in Friday’s qualifying session for Saturday’s Red Bull Air Race in Monument Valley with a time of 58.18 seconds, edging Peter Besenyei of Hungary by 0.90 seconds and leaving local hero Kirby Chambliss of the United States trailing 1.85 seconds behind in third.
The weekend at the Navajo Tribal Park came to an abrupt end for Germany’s Klaus Schrodt, who was the lone pilot who failed to make the cut for Saturday’s final rounds after suffering a three-second penalty that left him 0.46 seconds behind France’s Nicolas Ivanoff. “I’m extremely disappointed,” said Schrodt (Team Lobo) after watching Ivanoff (Team Mediterranean Racing) snatch away the final spot in Saturday’s finals. “I’m angry at myself.”
Bonhomme, who leads the overall championship and won the last race at Rio de Janiero, was happy to assume the mantle as favorite in the first race of the season held over land rather than water. Neither Besenyei, who took second place in 2005 and 2006, nor 2006 champion Chambliss were able to find a recipe to stop the high-flying Brit, who also took third place at the season opener at Abu Dhabi.
“It was a very good run, but I’m not counting my chickens,” said Bonhomme. “The good thing about tomorrow is the pressure, because it doesn’t bother me. Hopefully the pressure on the other guys will upset their thing a bit.” Bonhomme said he believed Mangold, one of three Americans in the field, may have been saving his best for Saturday’s race and will be faster than his fourth place in the qualifying indicated.
Michael Goulian, another American, had the distinct disadvantage of having just one qualifying flight after a faulty air speed indicator forced him to miss the first qualifying run. "The air speed indicator wasn’t working,” Goulian said, regaining his composure after showing his initial displeasure at the ruling. “For some reason they decided not to let us do the first run. I went out there and just did a leisurely pace and put the airplane solidly in the pack for tomorrow. It’s a shame I didn’t really get a chance to see how fast I could fly. I was just out there taking a cruise to make sure I got into top 12. I could have easily have flown a 1:01.” The World Series’ rookies Sergey Rakhmanin of Russia took eight and Hannes Arch of Austria was 10th both also qualified for Saturday’s finals.
The 12 remaining pilots will square off in the first run on Saturday for the eight spots in the quarter-finals. That will be followed by the semi-finals and then the final between the two survivors.
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Hyperlinks
»» www.redbullairrace.com
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