Rovinj: Race News

Date: 13/04/14 

Welcome to the race weekend here in Rovinj, Croatia! Our team will be updating this news story between now and Sunday afternoon when the second round of the Red Bull Air Race will conclude. Be sure to check back here to find quick updates and results from today's training sessions, Saturday's Qualifying and the Race on Sunday

SATURDAY 12 April 2014 – QUALIFYING

16:00 Official Qualifying Results

1. Hannes Arch – 00:57.72
2. Paul Bonhomme – 00:57.87
3. Pete McLeod – 00:58.15
4. Matthias Dolderer - 00:58.51
5. Nigel Lamb – 00:58.64
6. Yoshihide Muroya – 00:58.68
7. Kirby Chambliss – 00:59.82
8. Peter Besenyei – 01:00.21
9. Matt Hall – 01:00.56
10. Nicolas Ivanoff – 01:00.63
11. Michael Goulian – 01:01.40
12. Martin Sonka – DNF

15:40 Qualifying

Lamb – 00:58.646

Hall – 1:00.562

McLeod – 00:58.152

Arch – 00:57.724

Bonhomme – 00:58.109

15:20 Qualifying

Ivanoff – 01:00.636

Sonka – DNF

Dolderer – 00:58.512

15:03 Qualifying

Muroya – Great run from the Japanese pilot and it looks like a super fast time of 00:58.681

14:50 Qualifying

First three have flown:

Goulian – It's a 01:01.405 for the American who takes it relatively easily through the track as the first one out there

Chambliss – Too fast into the track for Kirby and he gets an automatic DQ... we've seen this before and he won't be happy. His second run is a 00.59.820 so he's faster.

Besenyei – The Hungarian makes his way through the racetrack in Rovinj and there's some official judging to come for his run. It's a 01:00.218

14:45 Qualifying

And this is it! All pilots are looking to make the most of today in order to get ahead for tomorrow's race.

Mike Goulian is now in the track!

14:30 Race Airport

All quiet as the pilots now prepare for today's Qualifying.

The official start list is out and the pilots that go last will have a distinct advantage as they watch and learn while their fellow competitors find their way through the track.

The pilots will fly in the following order based on their current World Championship standings:

GOULIAN Michael

CHAMBLISS Kirby

BESENYEI Peter

MUROYA Yoshi

IVANOFF Nicolas

SONKA Martin

DOLDERER Matthias

LAMB Nigel

HALL Matt

MCLEOD Pete

ARCH Hannes

BONHOMME Paul

14:00 Pre-Qualifying

We're gearing up for Qualifying, which starts at 14:00 local time (subject to track conditions and schedule adjustments).

The tension is mounting as Bonhomme, Arch, McLeod, Dolderer, Lamb and Hall all showed strong hands in this morning's training. We've already seen the times get closer as the pilots tighten their race lines in the track.

Former World Champ and commentator Mike Mangold says the Rovinj track is all about flying the chicane well and getting the position of the turns perfect. We can expect high G turns from all pilots as they aim to make their moves through Air Gates 4,5 and 6...

13:30 Training Recap

This is how it looked in the track...

13:15 Race Airport

The top 3 pilots from Master Class training give us their reactions:

1. Paul Bonhomme (GBR)

"It was a good run but it's still early days. What you don't want to do is show your cards too early. And I hope we haven't done that with this good time today. We're pleased because we're where we need to be or thereabouts of where we need to be. We just need a little bit of fine-tuning now to improve on that. There was a bit more wind in the last training today because I had a similar time to this morning's training session when there was less wind. So the wind got up and that generally slows the track and that shows that we've kind of improved something. But hey, you know what it's like, you don't want to show your hand, you don't want to show the right lines too early. We're still experimenting. That was still training. There's still Qualifying this afternoon."

2. Hannes Arch (AUT)

"Yes, I'm still quite satisfied. Paul flew really fast in that last training. He was a bit faster in the final training session and I made a big mistake and that's what made the difference. But I'm not going to tell you what my mistake because everyone would know about it then. But we're working on it. I'm generally happy because I'm flying near the top and I've got a good feeling about this race. It's a great location, really cool. I had some time to look down at the crowd a bit and there are a lot of people all over the place watching already even though it's only training. That's a good sign that there will be a lot of people here tomorrow."

3. Matthias Dolderer (GER)

"I had a lot of fun in training. It's a challenging course and the wind keeps changing out there. I'm not flying quite as cleanly as I should be flying but the lap times are pretty good. I hope that I can stay up near the front. It's nice to be in front of so many good pilots but I've got to focus on being consistent. They're all good in this field but you never know if people are showing their best hands or hiding some aces in their sleeves with their flying in training or not. There aren't any points to be won until the race on Sunday. What's my ace in my sleeve? I guess it's flying clean. It sounds easy to fly cleanly but there are so many little things that go into that can make you just fractions of a second faster or slower. But generally I'm feeling really good and hope that I can keep this up."

13:00 Race Airport

Now it's Peter Besenyei's turn to review the technical details with his team ahead of Qualifying

12:30 Training Recap

Paul Bonhomme (GBR) shows he is the man to beat with a 00:57.14 run. He gives us a smile to celebrate – hopefully he'll have more to smile about later...

12:15  Training session 2

The last training flights for the Master Class pilots have finished and the times are in – soon we'll have the start list for Qualifying once everything has been checked by the officials. In the meantime, let's see how the pilots have flown as they try out refined race lines here in Rovinj.

Results:

1. BONHOMME Paul GBR 00:57.14

2. ARCH Hannes AUT 00:57.92

3. DOLDERER Matthias GER 00:57.99

4. MCLEOD Pete CAN 00:59.06

5. MUROYA Yoshihide JPN 00:59.29

6. LAMB Nigel GBR 00:59.51

7. CHAMBLISS Kirby USA 00:59.76

8. BESENYEI Peter HUN 00:59.79

9. HALL Matt AUS 01:01.01

10. SONKA Martin CZE 01:01.53

11. GOULIAN Michael USA 01:01.73

12. IVANOFF Nicolas FRA 01:02.47

11:50 Race Airport

Something new for Team Chambliss... aircraft tug to pull his Edge 540 V3 to and from the hangar. We think this could catch on...

11:30 Training Recap

Hannes Arch (AUT) fastest in second training with 00:57.59 run in Rovinj ahead of Qualifying.

11:20 Challenger Cup Training Results

The six Challenger Cup pilots are also now back from their second training session and there's a new face at the top of the timesheets.

1. BENNET Tom GBR 01:00.98

2. SPIEGEL Claudius GER 01:01.34

3. LE VOT Francois FRA 01:01.43

4. CZEPIELA Luke POL 01:03.41

5. BRAGEOT Mikael FRA 01:03.90

6. PODLUNSEK Peter SLO 01:06.46

11:00 Initial reactions after training

Hannes Arch (AUT) was pleased after posting fastest time (57:59 seconds) in Saturday's early training session:

"I'm happy because we've got a good track to fly on now and it's easier for us to compare and see what the others are doing. I'm happy especially with my first run. I'm happy with my mental set-up. Yesterday my mental set-up was screwed up. If I have too much stress because of stuff going on it, it's difficult to focus and I had a lot of stuff going on yesterday. So I'm happy today."

Paul Bonhomme (GBR) was also pleased after taking a close second (57.91 seconds):

"It was fun, much calmer winds than yesterday. The winds were subtly different. It was good fun. The track has two halves. The start gate to the chicane through to Gate 3 is all very gentlemanly and calm, you know, it's sort of like 'get out a cigar and have a coffee'. But then from Gate 4 onwards the fun starts, the real action starts. They gates are very close together, so there's less turn but there's less time. It's pretty lively in there. But it's good fun. It's good fun now with the calm wind but by golly there will be pylons down all over the place if the wind picks up."

10:30 Training session 1

All pilots have flown a second training session this morning and the times are back. Looks like they aren't holding back today as we see the frontrunners up their game as we prepare for Qualifying later today.

Results:

1 ARCH Hannes AUT 00:57.59

2. BONHOMME Paul GBR 00:57.91

3. LAMB Nigel GBR 00:58.23

4. MUROYA Yoshihide JPN 00:59.15

5. DOLDERER Matthias GER 00:59.18

6. SONKA Martin CZE 00:59.51

7. HALL Matt AUS 00:59.56

8. IVANOFF Nicolas FRA 00:59.74

9. BESENYEI Peter HUN 01:00.06

10. MCLEOD Pete CAN 01:00.58

11. GOULIAN Michael USA 01:01.59

12. CHAMBLISS Kirby USA 01:00.53

10:00 Qualifying Preparation

Hello from Croatia!

We're back for Saturday's Qualifying today in Rovinj and the air is already filled with the roar of engines as a second training session is scheduled to give all pilots a chance to review their race lines. The weather here is a little overcast, with the sea breeze picking up. The racetrack gave pilots plenty to think about yesterday with pylon hits for many and lots of work for the Air Gators... top of the timesheets was Matthias Dolderer from Germany with defending World Champion Paul Bonhomme mid-field.

It could all change today...

FRIDAY 11 April 2014 – TRAINING

17:00 Challenger Cup Training Results

1. Mikael Brageot 1:01.26

2. Tom Bennett 1:01.65

3. Claudius Spiegel 1:02.60

4. Francois Le Vot 1:02.62

5. Peter Podlunsek 1:02.80

6. Luke Czepiela 1:03.93

16:30 Challenger Cup

Six Challenger Cup pilots also flew today, among them a host of local heroes competing in this category for the first time – Luke Czepiela (POL), Peter Podlunsek (SLO) and Claudius Spiegel (GER).

16:00 Pilot Reaction

Happy to have flown the fastest run of the day, Germany's Matthias Dolderer was upbeat after his result. With changing conditions in the track he was also cautious about placing too much emphasis on the result – "I'm not taking it for granted," he said.

15:40 Training Results

The official results are in from today's training session and there are some surprises...

1. Matthias Dolderer (GER) 0:58.47

2. Martin Sonka (CZE) 0:59.10

3. Matt Hall (AUS) 0:59.19

4. Hannes Arch (AUT) 0:59.31

5. Paul Bonhomme (GBR) 0:59.65

6. Peter Besenyei (HUN) 0:59.86

7. Yoshi Muroya (JPN) 1:00.00

8. Pete McLeod (CAN) 1:00.28

9. Nigel Lamb (GBR) 1:01.11

10. Kirby Chambliss (USA) 1:01.68

11. Mike Goulian (USA) 1:02.44

12. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA) 1:02.53

15:30 Training

Martin Sonka, the Czech pilot, was also confident after his flight. It's a contrast to the engine troubles in Abu Dhabi that kept him from making the most of the training flight at the season opener.

Pete McLeod was laid back about his flight, possibly keen to not make any big claims ahead of Qualifying. All eyes will  be on him this weekend.

15:30 Training

Germany's Dolderer admits it's a tricky track here in Rovinj and after a pylon hit today he's wise to exercise caution. His tip – taking a bit longer to get round the racetrack is better than going too fast and being caught out. Watch this space.

14:30 Training

All Master Class pilots have flown the track and have their opinions about where they might be able to fly the tightest line to save vital fractions of a second. Australia's Matt Hall says he's pleased with his training flights but couldn't make any firm predictions. He remains confident he can get a podium spot on Sunday to build on his fourth place the Abu Dhabi season opener.

13:30 Training

Japan's Yoshi Muroya also flies OK but admits "it's a big step up from the racetrack in Abu Dhabi and you can see we are having to get to grips with it". Conditions remain good and blue skies.

13:30 In the Hangars

A few more trade secrets unveiled... this time it's from Mike Goulian's hangar where his technician Dennis Sawyer has been busy since Abu Dhabi working on a new cooling mod for the team's Edge 540.

12:30 Training

Nigel Lamb is back on the ground after his first flight through the track and says "there's a light wind out there and I got my first pylon hit in ages just now".

11:30 Training

Hannes Arch makes sure he chills his G-Race Suit before flight, sounds a bit crazy but it must get pretty hot in the cockpit when you're pulling 10G! Keeping core temperatures regulated is an important part of achieving peak performance.

10:30 Race Airport

The twelve teams are firmly settled in to the Race Airport on the outskirts of Rovinj, preparing to commence the training sessions. This will be an opportunity to test the racetrack, assess how the planes handle with the sea breeze and also get an early indication about finding the perfect race line. It's a day for learning quickly and watching everyone else to get ahead...

09:30 Weather conditions in Rovinj

Local weather looks great from the ground here in Rovinj, with blue skies and 16°C temperatures. Nigel Lamb (GBR) says conditions are "fantastic" and wind is currently approx 30kph (16kts).