PAUL BONHOMME WINS TITLE NO.2
11 Aug 2010
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Paul Bonhomme retained his Red Bull Air Race championship title after a nail-biting final round of the 2010 series.
The British
pilot finished the race in second place in his Edge 540, behind rival Hannes
Arch at the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany. Both were in contention to take
their second title, and though Arch took more wins throughout the year
Bonhomme’s remarkable mistake-free consistency saw him victorious.
Fellow Brit
Nigel Lamb finished fourth in Germany to take third overall, a career best. His
hopes of taking a maiden win in the race itself were dashed after his MXS-R
suffered a puncture just prior to the final Four shoot-out and he was forced to
sit it out.
Austrian Arch
completed the 15-gate gate race in a time of 1:12.30 in front of a mammoth
crowd, with Bonhomme just 0.5s down, and rookie Matt Hall third place with a
time of 1:17.41 – including 4s in penalties.
Bonhomme is
the first pilot ever to claim back-to-back titles in the series and finishes
the year as the most successful pilot in the history of the sport with 13 race
wins.
Bonhomme
said: “It’s very special. The key thing is we won back-to-back championships…
that’s what I’m going to be taking away. I’ve been relaxed all year right up to
this race. I knew it could make or break the whole championship. The day didn’t
go to plan but I’m very pleased with the whole year.”
Bonhomme now
joins US stars Kirby Chambliss and Mike Mangold as winners of two titles, and
he’ll hold on to his title until at least 2012 after the organisers announced
there will be no RBAR in 2011.
The series
is now taking a one year break, say organisers, to focus on technological
advancements to improve safety. The season was notable by two separate
incidents of aircraft hitting the water, Adilson Kindlemann who crashed
uninjured, and Hall who clipped the surface but flew away.
FINAL POINTS
TABLE
Paul Bonhomme
64pts
Hannes Arch
60pts
Nigel Lamb 55pts
Kirby
Chambliss 41pts
Pete McLeod 33pts
Nicolas
Ivanoff 33pts
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