14 March 2016
VIDEO The favourites disqualified or knocked out early, the bottom-ranked pilot wins first ever podium, and a veteran takes first place… the opening round of the 2016 Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Abu Dhabi was anything but predictable.
With Britain’s Paul Bonhomme having retired as world champion at the end of the 2015 season, the runner-up last year, Matt Hall, was expected to set the pace this year. But the Australian racer hit a pylon course marker and failed to get beyond the opening round.
Bonhomme’s rival for many years, Hannes Arch of Austria was disqualified in the Final Four round after setting a blistering pace. Arch over-flew the crowd safety line which meant instant disqualification and zero points.
The winner was France’s Nicolas Ivanoff, just a tenth of a second faster than Matthias Dolderer of Germany in second place. François Le Vot of France, in his second season and ranked 14th, captured his first career podium with third.
The season-opening victory makes Ivanoff the early leader in the points of the eight race series. “I propose we end the season right now,” joked the Team Hamilton pilot. “Actually, we worked really hard for this in training and I was not stressed coming into the race – but I knew we had to be really careful. I’m very happy for my team and my fans.”
https://youtu.be/amy19cWINpI
Hall said afterwards, “I was pretty relaxed and happy going into the track, in the right frame of mind. I got through the first lap and I knew I was having a good run. I thought, “It’s in the bag now.” And I probably just relaxed a little bit going into that gate and was concentrating more on the safety line and the over-G potential than actually going through the gate cleanly. So it was a lapse in concentration on my part.”
Britain’s only competitor, Nigel Lamb, said, “I’m very happy with some fundamental elements of my flying – the raceplane is flying well, and I hit some very aggressive lines. The speed penalty was disappointing – we’ve been flying the same all week but today it started jumping around. With luck we’ve gotten all the difficulties out of the way at once here and Spielberg [the next round] will be the beginning of a new season.”
Results
1 Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA)
2 Matthias Dolderer (GER)
3 François Le Vot (FRA)
4 Hannes Arch (AUT)
5 Kirby Chambliss (USA)
6 Michael Goulian (USA)
7 Pete McLeod (CAN)
8 Yoshihide Muroya (JPN)
9 Matt Hall (AUS)
10 Juan Velarde (ESP)
11 Nigel Lamb (GBR)
12 Peter Podlunsek (SLO)
13 Petr Kopfstein (CZE)
14 Martin Sonka (CZE)
World Championship Standings
1 Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) 15 points
2 Matthias Dolderer (GER) 12 pts
3 François Le Vot (FRA) 9 pts
4 Kirby Chambliss (USA) 6 pts
5 Michael Goulian (USA) 5 pts
6 Pete McLeod (CAN) 4 pts
7 Yoshihide Muroya (JPN) 3 pts
8 Matt Hall (AUS) 2 pts
9 Juan Velarde (ESP) 1 pt
10 Hannes Arch (AUT) 0
11 Nigel Lamb (GBR) 0
12 Peter Podlunsek (SLO) 0
13 Petr Kopfstein (CZE) 0
14 Martin Sonka (CZE) 0
Next race: 23-24 April, Spielberg, Austria
