Bonhomme Beats Arch In Thrilling Showdown In Porto

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Posted By: Marcel van Leeuwen September 13, 2009

Paul Bonhomme

PORTO, Portugal – Britain’s Paul Bonhomme won a thrill-filled Red Bull Air Race battle over Austria’s Hannes Arch on Sunday in front of a record-breaking crowd of 720,000 in Porto and widened his overall lead over the defending champion to 4 points. Australia’s rookie sensation Matt Hall took 3rd place, the first podium of his career, and jumped from 5th place to 3rd in the overall championship.

Bonhomme stopped the clock in 1:09.23 on his final run through the 6.6-km course set up through 17 Air Gates on the Douro River to beat Arch by 0.94 seconds and Hall by 2.00 seconds. It was the second victory of the year for Bonhomme, who also won in Windsor.

Bonhomme, who also has three second-place finishes this year, now has 55 championship points compared to 51 for Arch. Hall now moves into 3rd place overall with 33 points, overtaking both Nicolas Ivanoff of France and Mike Mangold of the United States on the strength of his stirring podium performance.

Bonhomme was delighted when he heard over the radio that he had won saying: “Thank you Porto! It’s a beautiful city and we love it here”.
The season finale of the 2009 Red Bull Air Race World Championship takes place in Barcelona, Spain on 3/4 October.

Wild Card

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Time Diff. Pen
1 Mangold Mike USA   13.22   34.00   52.64 1:13.28    0
2 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA   13.13   33.17   51.40 1:13.69  + 0.41  2
3 Rakhmanin Sergey RUS   13.32   34.33   53.06 1:13.95  + 0.67  0
4 McLeod Pete CAN   13.00   33.57   54.70 1:15.65  + 2.37  2
Top 12

 

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Time Diff. Pen
1 Chambliss Kirby USA   12.82   31.75   49.66 1:08.88    0
2 Bonhomme Paul GBR   13.01   32.30   49.98 1:09.17  + 0.29  0
3 Dolderer Matthias GER   12.99   32.41   50.04 1:09.51  + 0.63  0
4 Arch Hannes AUT   12.74   32.42   50.51 1:10.53  + 1.65  0
5 Hall Matt AUS   12.87   32.95   50.99 1:10.97  + 2.09  0
6 Maclean Alejandro ESP   13.05   33.03   51.24 1:11.37  + 2.49  0
7 Besenyei Peter HUN   13.04   33.09   51.59 1:11.41  + 2.53  0
8 Mangold Mike USA   12.94   33.07   51.54 1:11.74  + 2.86  0
9 Goulian Michael USA   13.09   33.85   52.25 1:12.43  + 3.55  0
10 Muroya Yoshihide JPN   12.86   32.46   52.69 1:12.77  + 3.89  2
11 Lamb Nigel GBR   12.99   33.13   53.12 1:13.01  + 4.13  2
12 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA   13.08   33.33   51.52 1:13.67  + 4.79  2

Super Eight

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Time Diff. Pen
1 Arch Hannes AUT   12.87   32.32   49.88 1:09.57    0
2 Bonhomme Paul GBR   12.94   32.35   50.22 1:09.99  + 0.42  0
3 Hall Matt AUS   12.98   32.87   51.25 1:11.60  + 2.03  0
4 Besenyei Peter HUN   13.10   35.05   53.29 1:12.86  + 3.29  2
5 Mangold Mike USA   13.36   33.31   51.84 1:13.86  + 4.29  2
6 Dolderer Matthias GER   15.28   36.79   54.39 1:14.07  + 4.50  4
7 Maclean Alejandro ESP   13.05   32.69   DSQ    
8 Chambliss Kirby USA       DNS    

Final Four

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Time Diff. Pen
1 Bonhomme Paul GBR   12.83   32.04   49.85 1:09.23    0
2 Arch Hannes AUT   12.76   32.37   49.97 1:10.17  + 0.94  0
3 Hall Matt AUS   13.02   33.05   50.98 1:11.23  + 2.00  0
4 Besenyei Peter HUN   13.11   35.24   53.72 1:14.10  + 4.87  2

Race 

Rank Name Nation Rnd. Time Diff Points
1 Bonhomme Paul GBR  F4 1:09.23   12 + 1
2 Arch Hannes AUT  F4 1:10.17  + 0.94 10
3 Hall Matt AUS  F4 1:11.23  + 2.00 9
4 Besenyei Peter HUN  F4 1:14.10  + 4.87 8
5 Mangold Mike USA  S8 1:13.86   7
6 Dolderer Matthias GER  S8 1:14.07  + 0.21 6
7 Maclean Alejandro ESP  S8 DSQ   5
8 Chambliss Kirby USA  S8 DNS   4
9 Goulian Michael USA  T12 1:12.43   3
10 Muroya Yoshihide JPN  T12 1:12.77  + 0.34 2
11 Lamb Nigel GBR  T12 1:13.01  + 0.58 1
12 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA  T12 1:13.67  + 1.24 0
13 Rakhmanin Sergey RUS  WCD 1:13.95   0
14 McLeod Pete CAN  WCD 1:15.65  + 1.70 0

World Championship Standings 2009

Rank Name Nation Points
1 Bonhomme Paul GBR 55
2 Arch Hannes AUT 51
3 Hall Matt AUS 33
4 Mangold Mike USA 31
5 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA 28
6 Chambliss Kirby USA 27
7 Lamb Nigel GBR 22
8 Goulian Michael USA 21
9 Besenyei Peter HUN 20
10 Rakhmanin Sergey RUS 17
11 Dolderer Matthias GER 14
12 Maclean Alejandro ESP 14
13 Dell Glen RSA 3
14 Muroya Yoshihide JPN 3
15 McLeod Pete CAN 1

 

Source: www.redbullairraces.com

More info: www.air-races.com

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