• A record run in the Final Four at Indianapolis made Yoshi Muroya the first Japanese pilot to win a Red Bull Air Race World Championship. (Pedrag Vuckovic / Red Bull Content Pool)
    A record run in the Final Four at Indianapolis made Yoshi Muroya the first Japanese pilot to win a Red Bull Air Race World Championship. (Pedrag Vuckovic / Red Bull Content Pool)
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A nail biting finish to the final round of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship at Indianapolis yesterday resulted in Japanese pilot Yoshi Muroya taking his fourth race win of the year and with it the world title.

Before the start of the race, any one of Muroya, Czech pilot Martin Sonka, Canadian Pete McLeod or the USA's Kirby Chambliss could have won the championship, but ultimately the nut was cracked when Muroya set a lap record of 1:03.026 in the first run of the Final Four.

With McLeod and Chambliss not progressing past the Round of 14, the only other challenger left standing was Sonka, who had it all to do as he raced last. The title was still on the line when Sonka stalled his aircraft during the critical Vertical Turn Manoeuvre (VTM), which put paid to his championship hopes.

The race win made Muroya the first Japanese pilot to win the RBAR world title.

"This has been really amazing and a historic chapter in motorsport," Muroya said. "I won the race here and I've become a champion here. It's amazing, I can't believe it! So thank you to the fans and my family – thanks to everyone that's helped."

Race day started after Australia Matt Hall had won qualifying for the second race in a row. Fate, however, pitted title contenders Muroya and Sonka against each other in the Round of 14, which should have eliminated one. Muroya's dreams seemed shattered when he was penalised two seconds for incorrect level flying, but Sonka scored three seconds for striking a pylon, handing Muroya the win. Remarkably, both went through to the Round of 8; Sonka as the fastest loser.

Sonka then came up against a rampant Matt Hall, who had continued to show speed, beating Chile's Cristian Bolton to set the fastest time in the Round of 14. Fate, however, favoured Sonka again. Hall had a nightmare run, collecting five seconds in penalties for hitting a pylon and incorrect level flying, sending Sonka into the Final Four and the match-up with Muroya, German Matthias Dolderer and Spain's Juan Velarde.

"When I heard the time, I had to take Gate 2 tightly and at the max angle and that's where I clipped the pylon," Hall said. "I had a look over my shoulder to see if it was going down or not, because sometimes a nudge can feel like you didn't hit it. I then got distracted and blew the rest of the track."

But Muroya was building. During the Round of 8 he defeated Frenchman Mika Brageot with a 1:04.557, his fastest time to that point, but greater things were to come. Muroya ran first in the Final Four, and the time he set had people all around the track tapping their stop watches. His time was more than a second faster than Hall's qualifying time.

"When I saw my time in the cockpit, I thought the timing system had broke, but it was a reality," Muroya said. "I didn't think that time was possible so something was pushing me into this position."

Dolderer running second and Velarde running third put in respectable times themselves, but neither could come within two seconds of Muroya. When Sonka stalled in the last run of the day, the result was beyond doubt.

Muroya took the title, finishing with 74 points to Sonka's 70. McLeod finished third on 56 points.

For Matt Hall, the three points he scored for finishing eighth at Indianapolis were not enough to hold onto fifth place. He was overtaken by the Czech Republic's Petr Kopfstein and relegated to sixth place. Despite this, Hall was still pleased with the year's work.

"I had a chat with the team this morning and said regardless of what the result is today we've actually achieved and exceeded our goals. We said we want to develop the first half of the year, get the plane's handling sorted out in the middle of the year and then provide ourselves with a race winning team by the end of the year.

"Whether we win a race or not, we were able to win sessions and Quali. We're very happy with our performance this year."

Final Red Bull Air Race World Championship Standings

1 Yoshihide Muroya JPN 74
2 Martin Sonka CZE 70
3 Pete McLeod CAN 56
4 Kirby Chambliss USA 53
5 Petr Kopfstein CZE 43
6 Matt Hall AUS 40
7 Matthias Dolderer GER 39
8 Juan Velarde ESP 37
9 Michael Goulian USA 28
10 Mikael Brageot FRA 24
11 Nicolas Ivanoff FRA 16
12 Peter Podlunsek SLO 14
13 Cristian Bolton CHI 9
14 Francois Le Vot FRA 9
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