Czech pilot Martin Sonka has zoomed to the top of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship standings after winning the sixth round in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, yesterday. It was his third race win in succession.
Sonka defeated Japan's Yoshi Muroya and Matt Hall in the Final 4 round, with Frenchman Mika Brageot finishing in fourth place.
Only 0.08 seconds covered first to third, making it the closest finish in the history of the Red Bull Air Race.
"I can't describe the feeling of winning three in a row, there are no words," Sonka said. "It's super early to say exactly what this means, of course, but I'm very happy for my team and the raceplane is working well. Because of all the challenges we've had, it's an incredible season for us.
"It's still not the end, there are still 30 points on the table, so a lot of work in front of us – two big battles until the end of the Championship. But hopefully we can stay on this path, and we would like to continue this way to the end of the season."
Sonka accounted for Spaniard Juan Velarde in the Round of 14 to set up a Round of 8 match race with fellow Czech Petr Kopfstein, both of whom were racing in front of a barrage of Czech supporters. Sonka went 0.6 seconds faster than his fellow countryman to book his place in the final four alongside Brageot, Muroya and Hall.
Brageot raced first in the final to lay down a 1:00.088, which was then comfortably beaten by Muroya's 0:59.324. Sonka's hot streak continued as he put himself in contention for the top of the podium with a 0:59.288 with only Matt Hall to race.
Having set the fastest time of the day in the Round of 8 with a 0:58.394, Hall was understandably favourite to take the win. However, an over-heating engine in Hall's MXS-R denied him power, and in his final run couldn't quite best the time of either Sonka or second-placed Muroya. His 0:59.371 was nearly a full second slower than his best time.
“It’s good to be on the podium," said a typically up-beat Hall, "but it was disappointing to get to the podium and not get to the first step, especially when it’s eight one hundredths of a second from first to third.
“That’s the way racing is, it is so tight and we’re still six points behind the leaders, we’ve just happened to have a new leader now.
“Wiener Neustadt has been a good race, we had a nice clean race and I am really happy with how it went. Effectively to only be losing by eight one hundredths, that’s a toss of the coin between the top three. So, we’re happy that we’re still in the running, we just need to make sure we can claw back six points on Martin.
"We set probably the fastest time of the day today in the Round of 8 and I did the same line [in the Final 4] that I did then, but my engine was stinking hot because I was only shut down for three or four minutes, and I went back out again. so, we lost a bit of power out there."
It was not a good race for the Americans, with then championship leader Michael Goulian failing to advance past the Round of 14, penalised two seconds for sinking as he passed through a gate, and Kirby Chambliss being forced to withdraw from his Round of 8 race against Muroya after a magneto ran rough during the pre-take-off checks.
Sonka also won Round 4 in Budapest and Round 5 in Russia. His consistent run has put him on top of the championship standings on 64 point, with Matt Hall second on 58 and Goulian third on 55.
The series now goes to the United States for the last two races of the season in Indianapolis 6-7 October and Fort Worth, Texas, 17-18 November.
With a maximum of 30 points to fight over, only Sonka, Hall and Goulian are still in the title race.