The River Danube, Budapest

Was this Europe's largest ever sports event? It's claimed 1.2 million spectators watched the Hungarian round of the Red Bull Air Race World Series, held in Budapest on 20 August.

The Hugely successful race series comes to a climax on Sunday, 8 October in the skies above San Francisco Bay for the final event of the 2005 season. American Mike Mangold is leading the championship after three wins.

The Budapest race was around a 1.7km long course which featured 12 pylons floating on the River Danube. The world's ten best aerobatic pilots reached speeds of up to 240mph and averaged 154mph on the slslom course while executing exacting aerobatic manoeuvres - all against the clock.

Mangold, a 49-year-old former Top Gun Navy pilot, was flying a 344hp Dragon-Edge. He beat fellow American Kirby Chambliss and Brit Paul Bonhomme into second and third respectively. Hungarian Peter Besenyei, who created the series, finished fourth. " I felt some pressure,"Mangold admitted afterwards.

Penalties played a cruical role in the challenging course and German Klaus Schrodt missed third place thanks to an incorrect knife-edge position just before the finish line. Sihnificantly, the only pilot in the field without any penalty points was Mangold. Web www.redbullairrace.com