• Frenchman Nicholas Ivanov rolls high over the Texas Motor Speedway, where he scored his first win of the 2014 Red Bull Air Race season. (Red Bull Content Pool)
    Frenchman Nicholas Ivanov rolls high over the Texas Motor Speedway, where he scored his first win of the 2014 Red Bull Air Race season. (Red Bull Content Pool)
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Frenchman Nicholas Ivanov greeted the chequered flag at the sixth round of the Red Bull Air Race in Texas yesterday.

Ivanov beat Brit Nigel Lamb, Canadian Pete McLeod, and German Matthias Dolderer in the final four to take his first win of the season.

Aussie Matt Hall finished sixth after failing to make the final four.

In the hot and humid final, Ivanov clocked a time of 54.118 to eclipse Lamb (54.253) and McLeod (54.666) in the sky over the Texas Motor Speedway at Dallas Fort Worth.

"I feel really, really happy," Ivanov said. "I got a podium last race and a victory now; I'm feeling really good for sure. It was not easy with the changing winds; there were many pylon hits over the course of the week.

"Today I tried to fly the track as fast as I could just to lose a tenth of a second. When I first flew in the racetrack, I wasn't sure I liked it too much but slowly, step-by-step, I managed to improve."

Matt Hall qualified second behind Pete McLeod after the Saturday qualifying session was halted due to a storm and high winds. Rankings were then decided on the final training times, during which Hall put in a blistering run.

He defeated veteran Peter Besenyei in the Top 12 round, but posted a slower time in the Super 8 round that saw him eliminated from the competition. According to Hall, he took it a bit easy after a pylon strike in training.

"A couple of days ago it was looking as if this could be my race, so I'm disappointed that we could've done better.

"I think, subconsciously, I slowed down because of my big pylon hit yesterday; I was right on the edge so I didn't want to do that again. I was determined to fly cleanly today without a penalty but in this track you've got to fly right on the edge to get a good time. It just so happened that I wasn't firing on all cylinders today."

Hall retains his fourth place in the World Championship, but Briton Paul Bonhomme jumped into the lead with his fifth place finish, leap-frogging Austrian Hannes Arch who finished eighth. Arch is now in a two-way tie for second with Nigel Lamb.

Red Bull Air Race now moves on to Las Vegas on 11-12 October.

 

 

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