• Mike Goulian's win at Abu Dhabi in 2018 was only the second one of his career, and came nine years after his first. (Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool)
    Mike Goulian's win at Abu Dhabi in 2018 was only the second one of his career, and came nine years after his first. (Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool)
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American Mike Goulian won the opening round of the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship series in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

It was only the second win of his career, and comes nine years after his maiden victory in Budapest, Hungary, in 2009.

Goulian triumphed over current champion Japan's Yoshi Muroya and fellow American Kirby Chambliss. Czech pilot Martin Sonka finished third in the Final 4, but was classified fourth after he was disqualified for his magneto being tuned outside allowable limits.

Australian Matt Hall finished fifth.

"It's been a long time coming to get that second win, but it feels great," Goulian told Red Bull media. "I was very fast all week and very consistent. I was excited for Qualifying, excited for the race, but I knew I couldn't get too excited. So we worked on just putting one foot in front of the other and make small improvements.

"I had a feeling we would do well today, but I didn't want to put the cart in front of the horse. We want to be consistent now and we want to win races, but our aim is make the Final 4, get the points and be in the challenge for the World Championship."

Goulian qualified in second place before accounting for Frenchman Nicolas Ivanoff in the Round of 14 and Hall in the Round of 8. His 0:53.695 in the Final 4 was enough to secure the win over Muroya's 0:53.985.

For Hall the weekend was filled with drama. He qualified in last place after subjecting his aircraft to more than 12 g, which resulted in the stewards calling him off the track. That set up a Round of 14 battle with fastest qualifier and good mate German Matthias Dolderer. Dolderer suffered the same fate in the run-off with Hall, which sent the Australian to a Round of 8 meeting with Goulian.

"The track slowed down," Hall said later. "I heard Mike's time and it was slow so I thought I'd have to push in the track. I went as hard as I could. For me I flew a good time, but Mike has been faster than me all week.

"It's not a bad start. Once again we've got a whole new set-up and for a first race with a new set-up it's not a bad result. I'm happy with it compared to where we were in the middle of this week."

Goulian's win after finishing ninth in the championship last year shows how close the 2018 series is going to be, but Hall still believes his team has the goods to campaign strongly for the title this year.

“... this has been the best start to a season we have had for a couple of years, two seasons ago I won qualifying then was knocked out with a pylon hit. Last year we rented a plane and finished tenth.

“Being in the middle of the pack this time around is a lot better than that, there are still another seven rounds to go. Moreover some of the really fast guys in this series finished behind us today, so I feel like this title race will be wide open.

“I still believe we have the team to be in the hunt.”

The second round of the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship is in Cannes, France, 21-22 April.

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