• Matt Hall's second place in Lausitz was his best result for the year so far. (Sebastian Marko / Red Bull Content Pool)
    Matt Hall's second place in Lausitz was his best result for the year so far. (Sebastian Marko / Red Bull Content Pool)
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Lausitz turned on one of the most exciting races of the 2017 Red Bull Air Race World Championship last Sunday as Japan’s Yoshi Muroya stormed to his third win of the year and Australian Matt Hall recorded his best result since switching to the Edge 540.

Muroya clocked the best time of the day, a 0:50.451, to take the round win on the EuroSpeedway track in Germany, ahead of Hall in second, Czech favourite Martin Sonka in third and Spain’s Juan Velarde in fourth.

The result has set up a grandstand finish to the season at next month’s final round in Indianapolis as any one of four pilots can emerge as the World Champion. The current standings show Sonka leading on 63 points, Muroya on 59, Canadian Pete McLeod in third on 56 and the USA’s Kirby Chambliss fourth on 52.

"It's a win, so of course it's very, very satisfying,” Muroya said of his Lausitz victory. “We had a hard time in Kazan and Porto, then we prepared very well, and thanks to all of my team members.

“We knew we would be able to fight for the championship this year. The plan for Indianapolis is easy: just go fast and go get the win."

Having qualified third, Muroya eliminated France’s Francois Le Vot in the Round of 14 and championship rival, American Kirby Chambliss in the Round of 8.

Racing second in the Final 4, Muroya’s time eclipsed Hall’s 0:50.846 and set a mark that was too much for Velarde, who collected a 2-second penalty for incorrect level flying. Championship leader Sonka raced last, but couldn’t best either Muroya or Hall, finishing in third place.

For Matt Hall, it was his best race weekend of the year. He started out qualifying in first place, which matched him with Chilean pilot Cristian Bolton in the Round of 14. After accounting for Bolton easily, Hall came up against Frenchman Mikael Brageot in the Round of 8, scraping into the final by only 0.002 of a second.

Racing first in the final, Hall clocked his best time of the day, but fell into second after the blistering run from Muroya.

"Winning would've been great, but there are some fast guys out there,” Hall said after the race. “I've been working this year towards having a winning aircraft and team. We never said we were going to win a race, but we're getting close.

“Winning Qualifying is almost a tick in the box to say we know we can win. We know where the time is still missing and we're working on it. So things are looking good for next year, but a great result here.”

Hall currently sits in fifth place in the standings, 26 points behind Sonka and 15 behind Chambliss. With only 15 points on offer for a race win, Hall is out of the championship battle. However, the team is now clearly getting better acquainted with their Edge 540, which means this year’s championship contenders won’t have the track all to themselves, and with another good showing in Indianapolis, Hall may still have a say in who emerges as the 2017 World Champion.

The championship decider is at Indianapolis 14-15 October.

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