Arch Fastest In Barcelona Training With Hot New Engine

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Posted By: Marcel van Leeuwen October 1, 2009

TArchBARCELONA, Spain – Defending champion Hannes Arch of Austria topped the time sheets in training on Thursday ahead of Red Bull Air Race World Championship season finale in Barcelona this weekend and said he hoped the blazing time with his hot new engine will put the pressure on championship leader Paul Bonhomme. The British ace was second fastest on the challenging course set up on the Mediterranean Sea just a few dozen metres off the beaches of the Front Maritim in Barcelona while American Michael Goulian took third. Spain’s Alejandro Maclean took a strong 6th place in Thursday’s afternoon training session.

Bonhomme (55 points) holds a slim 4-point lead over Arch (51 points) going into the final race of the season, where 13 points are up for grabs for a pilot who wins Qualifying on Saturday (1 point) and Sunday’s race (12 points). Behind the two leaders there is also a fierce battle going on for third place with 6 pilots all still in the hunt for the spot that rookie Matt Hall of Australia (33 points) currently holds. Hall was 5th on Thursday in training behind Nicolas Ivanoff of France.

Hannes Arch: “I’ve got to attack”

“It’s a straight-forward situation – I’m 4 points behind and have to win the race and hope for the best to win the championship,” said Arch, whose time of 1:20.55 was a full 2.07 seconds ahead of Bonhomme and duly impressed the rest of the field. “I’ve got to attack, I’ve got to win the 1 Qualifying point and win the race, and then lean back and see what Paul does. If he makes mistakes, we’ll be right there,” said the Austrian, who has been trying to ply the pressure on Bonhomme by reminding him he finished 2nd in both 2007 and 2008. “We’re going all out to win the title even if we only have an outside chance.”

Paul Bonhomme: “I feel very relaxed”

Bonhomme, on a hot streak with 2 wins and 1 second-place finish in the last three races, said he found Arch’s attempts to rattle him entertaining. He said he was pleased with a strong training run and was confident he could build upon that in Friday’s two training sessions before Qualifying on Saturday.

I’m not normally very good on Thursday afternoons,” he said. “But this time I tried a bit harder and I upped the power.” When asked by reporters at the Red Bull Air Race Airport about Arch’s talk of him wilting under pressure, he just smiled: “I think it’s hilarious. I feel very relaxed. He’s obviously been talking to a sports psychologist or someone who told him ‘to get the pressure off you direct it in another direction’,” Bonhomme said. “I’m sure it’s in a handbook of sports psychology and it’s clearly what he’s trying to do. But it’s failing miserably because I’m relaxed.”

Maclean responded well to the pressure

Maclean responded well to the pressure of flying in his home country for the first time since 2006, when 1 million spectators watched the race here. “The track is not as complicated as it seemed at first on paper,” he said. “It’s quite okay for our plane as far as the turns are concerned. But we need more power for the straight lines between gates and we don’t have it. We’ll try to sort it out and see how it goes tomorrow.”

Results First Training Day Barcelona 2009

First Training

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Rnd. Time Diff. Pen
1 Goulian Michael USA   24.62   42.33   1:07.09 Run 2 1:24.40    0
2 Dolderer Matthias GER   24.30   41.60   1:07.04 Run 3 1:24.71  + 0.31  0
3 Chambliss Kirby USA   24.44   42.68   1:07.19 Run 1 1:24.79  + 0.39  0
4 Hall Matt AUS   24.28   41.73   1:07.11 Run 2 1:25.15  + 0.75  0
5 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA   24.37   41.97   1:07.77 Run 2 1:25.39  + 0.99  0
6 Lamb Nigel GBR   24.74   42.56   1:08.31 Run 2 1:26.10  + 1.70  0
7 Arch Hannes AUT   25.92   42.88   1:09.38 Run 2 1:26.48  + 2.08  4
8 Besenyei Peter HUN   24.77   42.74   1:08.37 Run 2 1:26.77  + 2.37  0
9 Bonhomme Paul GBR   25.57   43.51   1:09.32 Run 1 1:27.16  + 2.76  0
10 Muroya Yoshihide JPN   25.09   43.51   1:10.10 Run 2 1:29.00  + 4.60  0
11 McLeod Pete CAN   25.38   43.99   1:10.49 Run 2 1:29.48  + 5.08  0
12 Maclean Alejandro ESP   25.83   44.11   1:10.97 Run 2 1:31.53  + 7.13  4
13 Mangold Mike USA   26.80   44.34   1:13.69 Run 2 1:31.97  + 7.57  2
14 Dell Glen RSA   30.50   49.17   1:16.76 Run 1 1:35.35  + 10.95  2
15 Rakhmanin Sergey RUS   30.56   48.92   1:16.54 Run 2 1:35.73  + 11.33  4

Second Training

Rank Name Nation Int. 1 Int. 2 Int. 3 Rnd. Time Diff. Pen
1 Arch Hannes AUT   22.72   39.57   1:03.40 Run 2 1:20.55    0
2 Bonhomme Paul GBR   23.87   40.76   1:05.65 Run 2 1:22.62  + 2.07  0
3 Goulian Michael USA   24.65   42.06   1:07.03 Run 2 1:24.32  + 3.77  0
4 Ivanoff Nicolas FRA   23.56   41.26   1:06.57 Run 2 1:24.50  + 3.95  0
5 Hall Matt AUS   24.32   41.93   1:07.50 Run 2 1:24.81  + 4.26  0
6 Maclean Alejandro ESP   24.07   42.77   1:07.83 Run 1 1:26.05  + 5.50  0
7 Chambliss Kirby USA   23.07   43.56   1:08.39 Run 1 1:26.08  + 5.53  2
8 Dolderer Matthias GER   26.93   44.00   1:09.24 Run 3 1:26.39  + 5.84  2
9 Besenyei Peter HUN   26.03   44.02   1:09.35 Run 1 1:27.20  + 6.65  2
10 Lamb Nigel GBR   26.53   44.33   1:10.30 Run 2 1:28.15  + 7.60  2
11 Mangold Mike USA   25.37   43.84   1:10.52 Run 2 1:28.95  + 8.40  0
12 Muroya Yoshihide JPN   26.23   46.44   1:11.35 Run 2 1:29.36  + 8.81  4
13 McLeod Pete CAN   25.49   44.58   1:11.23 Run 2 1:30.49  + 9.94  0
14 Rakhmanin Sergey RUS   27.54   45.64   1:12.71 Run 2 1:30.75  + 10.20  2
15 Dell Glen RSA   28.75   53.21   1:22.47 Run 1 1:41.37  + 20.82  10

Source: Red Bull Air Race.com

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