• Matt Hall exits the second round of the Red Bull Air Race series 2014 in Croatia with a pylon hit. (Red Bull Air Race)
    Matt Hall exits the second round of the Red Bull Air Race series 2014 in Croatia with a pylon hit. (Red Bull Air Race)
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Matt Hall has attributed his pylon strike in the Croatian round of the 2014 Red Bull Air Race to trying to find a new, faster line around the course.

Hall finished seventh at Rovinj on 13 April after striking a pylon trying to advance past the round of eight.

"The Race Directors changed the track quite a bit while we were there," Hall says in his round review. "Normally this would not have worried me as much, though now we are using Peter [Wesenbeek] as my tactician, I got pretty excited and perhaps became a little too engrossed in predicting the perfect line with him, rather than just going out and flying my natural line as I have done in previous years.

"The result was that under my direction we spent a little longer than normal testing ‘new’ lines each flight, rather than bedding down a line to make it second nature

"This then led to turning up on race day with a plan to fly a line that I had not actually trained to properly.

"Combine that with some challenging wind conditions, and I was in an uphill battle from the start. The result was, as everyone saw, I JUST made it through the track on the Top 12, then hit a pylon (not just touched, I smashed it!).

The strike was Hall's second in successive rounds, which he acknowledges is getting him a reputation as a pylon-hitter. However, Hall says he will adopt a back-to-basics approach to correct the situation and get himself back on the podium.

"While there is some pretty fast competition out there, Yoshi [Muroya] proved once again that slow and steady gets results (may not win the race, though gets a lot closer than trying too hard and making mistakes). So, I will look at going back to my older habits of flying a solid, reliable and safe line, then analysing it with Peter to get it faster, rather than trying radical changes each flight and never getting into a rhythm.

"If I do that, I think we will do OK and hopefully start making podiums again. Once there, I can then start worrying about the order on the podium … someone has to stop Hannes [Arch] and Paul [Bonhomme] getting all the points!"

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