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» 1920,- € |
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» 84,90 € |
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» 55,35 € |
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» 357,- € |
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» 124,90 € |
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BRITISH PILOT BONHOMME TOPS QUALIFYING
05.04.2007 |
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The second leg of the Red Bull Air Race World Series, taking place in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, is set to be a tight competition following Friday’s qualifying results.
British pilot Paul Bonhomme beat Hungarian Peter Besenyei by a fraction of a second for first place. Fellow Brit Steve Jones followed in third place.
With a time of 1:34:05 minutes and a top speed of 368.5 km/h over the starting line, Bonhomme has become a force to be reckoned with. Finishing with no penalties, Bonhomme came in with a perfect flight ahead of Abu Dhabi champ Peter Besenyei (+ 0.31). “Paul was fast, very fast,“ Besenyei admitted. “Yet my hopes of an elimination and a knockout have not changed,” Besenyei added competitively.
Rounding out the finalists were Jones (+0.83 seconds), American Mike Mangold (+1.17 seconds), who continues to suffer from a neck injury, and World Series champion Kirby Chambliss (USA/+1.55 seconds).
Coming in a respectable sixth place was flying Dutchman Frank Versteegh with 6.28 seconds behind Bonhomme.
“I wanted to find my limit and took the middle way and achieved the fastest run without penalties. My strategy for the race remains my secret,“ Versteegh added dryly.
Winning praise from all sides was rookie Air Race pilot Hannes Arch, who came in seventh. “The increase in performance was enormous. I did not expect it. It’s now up to me to use that potential in the elimination. It’s clear to me though that not all the pilots have reached their performance limit.”
Crowds of spectators are expected to watch the pilots reach speeds of up to 400 km/h and up to 10G at the Air Race, which takes place on Saturday over Botafogo beach in Guanabara Bay. The elimination of the second leg of the Red Bull Air Race World Series starts at 1 pm local time.
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Hyperlinks
»» www.redbullairrace.com
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