Photo: Marcel van Leeuwen, aviationnews.eu

BUDAPEST, Hungary – American Michael Goulian set the pace in training on Tuesday morning ahead of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship Qualifying session on Wednesday, beating of Britain’s Paul Bonhomme in second and Austria’s Hannes in third. Flying in his bright “Hungarian green” Edge 540, Goulian posted a blistering time of 1:11.03 on the 6.6 km-long course set up through 17 Air Gates on the Danube River in the heart of the Hungarian capital city while Bonhomme was 0.46 seconds back and Arch 1.32 seconds behind. The final training session will be on Tuesday afternoon.

“I know where to place the plane but the gates are coming up awful fast and I’m just trying to fly as smoothly and as cleanly as possible – and it’s working,” said Goulian, who has been the surprise package in Budapest after picking up just six points for 11th place overall in the first three races. “But you have to watch out because if you make just one 2-second penalty you’re going to fall from 1st to 8th pretty fast.”

Bonhomme learned that lesson in Monday’s training, dropping to 8th with a 2-second penalty, but on Tuesday put in one clean run after another on the challenging Budapest course that starts and finishes underneath the city’s iconic Chain Bridge.

“Today was much, much better,” said Bonhomme, not overly concerned about the rare 2-second penalty. “I’m pleased with the time. I think once the racing pressure starts and guys really push hard, I reckon you can pick up some penalties fairly easily on this track. Let’s hope the others do. Everyone’s picked up their game and there are a lot of guys with similar times. It’s going to be an exciting race.”

Japan’s Yoshi Muroya picked up a 10-second penalty in one training run with a spectacularly loud pylon hit. “I just had a lapse in concentration,” Muroya said. “I was checking out a new line and then hit the pylon. It was like ‘bam’!”

The left wing of his Edge 540, which picked up the red colouring from the pylon, was slightly damaged by the pylon hit. Red Bull Air Race Technical Director Adrian Judd inspected the wing and said there was only a slight compression to the top of the carbon fibre and that could be repaired by the afternoon training. “There was no major structural damage,” Judd said. “It looks like it was a pretty mild strike.”

American Kirby Chambliss and Spain’s Alejandro Maclean both exceeded the 12-G limit for fractions of a second in their training runs. Both planes were then required to pass inspections.

Tens of thousands of spectators are expected to line the banks of the Danube River to watch 15 of the world’s best pilots battle it out in Qualifying, which starts at 13:00 on Wednesday, and the race, which starts at 13:00 on Thursday. The Hungarian capital has become a traditional fixture on the calendar and will host the competition for the sixth year running.

Source: Red Bull Air Race