Czech pilot Martin Sonka has taken his second straight Red Bull Air Race win after victory overnight in the fifth round in Kazan, Russia.
Sonka beat Americans Michael Goulian and Kirby Chambliss, and Spainard Juan Velarde in the Final 4 round. The result has elevated Goulian to the series lead after Australian Matt Hall struck a pylon in his Round of 8 match race with Velarde, relegating the Aussie to seventh overall.
Hall had been in the championship lead, and is now in equal second place with Sunday's winner Martin Sonka.
It was not an easy race weekend for the Czech, who managed only 12th place in qualifying, but a very respectable time in the Round of 8 saw him defeat Velarde and progress to a match race with Briton Ben Murphy. Murphy's strong showing forced Sonka to do his best time for the weekend to progress to the Final 4.
"This was definitely one of the most difficult races we have ever experienced because we were struggling with everything here," Sonka said after the race. "Nothing was working for us, so it was a great team effort to put it together today. All the work that went behind this result makes it even better.
"For me personally, I'm not thinking about the season itself. Now we can start to think about the next race in Wiener Neustadt, and that's another task in front of us. We have to be focused."
Matt Hall's weekend started out with ninth in qualifying before taking on Frenchman Mika Brageot in the Round of 14. Brageot incurred a three-second penalty for registering an over-G situation, which further cemented Hall's elevation to the Round of 8.
Matched with Velarde, who advanced as the fastest loser from the Round of 14, Hall was faced with beating the Spaniard at his best, and was on time for a victory when the pylon strike happened.
“My flight was on rails, I knew it was a good time and I hit all my marks and the VTM [vertical turning manoeuvre] …I knew I nailed it,” a clearly disappointed Hall said.
“Then I was on the back straight and just relaxed thinking I had it in the bag. Then I over-pulled the final turn and I saw the gate and thought, ‘yep I’m going to hit that’. There was nothing I could do about it at that point.
“So, I saw it coming and just had to go through it.”
Last year's champion, Japan's Yoshi Muroya, was also eliminated in the Round of 8. Muroya was disqualified for a technical breach in which his engine exceeded the 2750 RPM limit for more than two seconds, giving opponent Chambliss passge through to the final.
Goulian now leads the championship on 55 points, with Hall and Sonka locked together in second place on 49 points each.
The next round of the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship is in the Austrian city of Wiener Neustadt 15-16 September.