PORTO // The gap between the two main rivals in the Red Bull Air Race widened to two points yesterday. After the qualifying round, Hannes Arch, of Team Abu Dhabi, found himself lagging behind by yet another point before today's race day. Britain's Paul Bonhomme, clocked 1:10.03 during the first of two qualifying rounds for his fastest time of the day.
Arch had his worst finish of the season with a ninth place, just one position short of having to compete in the wild card round. Arch suffered a six-second penalty after hitting a pylon. The race pilot with the fastest time during the qualifying round wins an extra point before moving on to the final round today. The Japanese rookie Yoshihide Muroya was the surprise performer for the day, bagging a fourth spot behind the American Kirby Chambliss and the Australian Matt Hall. Chambliss had missed the first round of the qualifiers due to technical difficulties.
After two days of gloomy weather, the seaside finally woke up to the sounds of aerobatic planes. Training sessions that were scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday were cancelled due to fog that engulfed the runway and the course, which is set over the Duoro river. However, at least one session is mandatory before the race pilots are allowed to take part in the qualifying round. So the pilots took to the sky early in the morning yesterday in order to get ready for the qualifying rounds, from which 10 of the pilots with the best flying times won the right to compete in the race today.
Two other pilots will compete for one wild card slot. Although 15 pilots compete in a eight-round series, the Porto race will see only 14 of them on the course. Glen Dell from South Africa was disqualified even before the start of the race after a technical inspection of his engine, that said the plane was not airworthy. Teams often make modifications to their engines in order to enhance their speed.
sbhattacharya@thenational.ae
