British pilots dominated the Royal Ascot round of the Red Bull Air Race on the weekend, taking both first and second spots in a race day full of upsets.
Paul Bonhomme took the win from fellow Brit Nigel Lamb in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. Frenchman Nicholas Ivanoff came in third, with Matthias Dolderer of Germany completing the Final 4
Australian Matt Hall had a difficult weekend, coming fifth after having qualified on Saturday in only 10th place. Another upset was series leader Hannes Arch, who finished in eighth position. It is the first time in the series the Austrian has failed to make the final.
It paved the way for a thrilling Final 4, which included Ivanoff and Dolderer for the first time in this series.
As the slowest qualifier, Ivanoff flew first, setting a time of 1:11.884. Paul Bonhomme hurdled that easily with a blistering 1:11.579, which neither Dolderer (1:12.024) nor Lamb 1:11.750 could beat.
"It hasn't really sunk in that I've won yet," Bonhomme said later. "We've had a busy week and it hasn't been the best of weeks. We've had all sorts of issues, which we've been quietly resolving but it's all paid off.
"I hope we can continue to perform like this but, as you've seen today, anything can happen. We certainly can't relax now but we'll see what happens next."
For Matt Hall, the weekend was struggle from the outset, and he managed to qualify only 10th in his MSX-R, his lowest qualifiying spot for the year. He beat Japanese pilot Yoshi Moruya in the Top 12, but could manage only fifth in the Super 8 round with a time of 1:13.279.
"We've had a pretty rough time here at Ascot; we're never really got into the top rankings," Hall reflected. "We couldn't find the speed in the track so coming into today ranked 10th in Qualifying, giving as much as I could yesterday, we're really happy that we made up little bits and pieces and ended up in fifth. It's not a bad result considering where we started."
“It really was a privilege to be able to fly in this race, over this track, with this crowd on hand and it’s been a blast. If someone told me a year ago that I’d be taking off and landing at Royal Ascot I would have laughed at them.
“I stay where I was in the standings and I can’t wait to get over to the USA for the next two races and get back into that Final 4 on race day.”
For series leader Hannes Arch, Ascot was a near-disaster with an eighth place finish cutting his lead to only two points. Qualifying in fifth, Arch eliminated American Kirby Chmabliss, but a one-second penalty for having insufficent smoke and a two-second penalty for flying through a gate at the wrong level relegated him to last in the Super 8 round.
"Well it was really not my weekend," Arch said ruefully. "Race Day started quite well despite the Smoke Penalty but we thought that was easy to fix. My times were alright and my lines were alright but the mess ups really started in my last flight.
"There was a misunderstanding between the Race Director and me and after that I didn't really focus. It was still a good race and a good line but there was no chance I was going to make back the time."
Arch still leads the championship on 43 points, but now has Paul Bonhomme on his heels only two points behind. Nigel Lamb is fifth on 35 points and Matt Hall fourth with 25.
The next race is at the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas-Fort Worth 6-7 September.