Matt Hall's pylon strike in the final of the Red Bull Air Race last Saturday was the result of a risky game plan to finish better than fourth.
Hall struck the gate pylon after rolling out of a high turn, resulting in a Did-Not-Finish (DNF) and an immediate fourth place. Whereas other pilots rolled-out earlier to stabilise the aircraft for the gate, the Australian waited until the last minute to level the wings.
"That particular gate was where I was getting my time advantage over the other guys," Hall later explained to Australian Flying. "They were getting faster sector times in different areas ... I was getting a faster sector time in through that gate.
"I didn't line myself up from a long way out like the other guys did, I was using instinct for a very late roll-out.
"We knew that was a very risky manoeuvre I was doing of hitting a pylon. It was an all or nothing game plan to take that line. I could have flown a clean line in the race and got a guaranteed fourth, but we decided that if I hit a pylon we would have come fourth anyway, so we might as well take the risk and maybe come third or second."
Regardless of the DNF, Hall was happy with the team performance in Abu Dhabi, with his No.95 MXS racer showing a decent turn of speed.
"Considering we didn't know how anyone was going to place in the field with the standardised engines and changes, to come in the top four is a really good start," he said. "It means we're competitive and we've got some good points on the board straight away.
"When you look at the qualifying data and our training times, the top eight pilots were all within a second of each other and the top five were within 0.6 seconds. It doesn't take much of an error for someone who is winning to being all of a sudden losing.
"Without the pylon strike our telemetry was telling us we would have posted a time good enough to get us into second place. That said, you only get those fast times when you're taking risks, so it comes with the territory.
"[the team] went really well. There are a few little things that we'll have to tweak, but they're more lessons about the changes in the race rather than individual performances. It's more about what things we can improve as a whole rather than people making errors.
"I'm very, very happy with how it all went."
Between now and Round Two at Rovinj in Croatia on 12-13 April, the team will make some minor modification to the aircraft, with the expectation that it will be even faster in the next race.