Abu Dhabi: Defending Abu Dhabi champion Paul Bonhomme, who has won here three times, once again judged the wind to perfection to clock the fastest time in the qualifiers ahead of the season-opening Red Bull Air Race at the Corniche yesterday.
The Briton clocked 57.178 seconds to pip Australian Matt Hall, who was impressive throughout and recorded 57.800s, while Yoshihide Muroya of Japan was third in 59.093s.
World Champion Nigel Lamb, however, had a forgettable outing as, for the first time in seven years, he was disqualified after being penalised for going too low between gates 9 and 10.
The morning session practice rang alarm bells as seven of the 14 pilots hit the pylons as the wind created havoc. It forced the organisers to cut short the qualifying round from two runs to one.
The pilots wanted the wind to remain calm, but it kept shifting to make life tricky, especially for the early starters.
However, by the time Bonhomme took off, the winds were slightly down and he made it count, maneuvering through two laps of the course with ease.
Despite the result, he was not a happy man as he will have to go head-to-head against Lamb in the knockouts due to a rule change.
Even if Bonhomme wins, there is a possibility that he will again have to battle Lamb in the round of eight if the latter finishes as the fastest loser.
“I’m not a fan of the new rule change and the perfect example of that you have seen today. Despite finishing first I will be going head-to-head with the world champion. It is what it is and we will be looking forward to racing,” said Bonhomme, who believes qualifying doesn’t matter much.
“Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched. The wind conditions are changing here all the time. We have an entire week of southeasterly winds and then today they shift to northerly winds. Whoever can adapt to the changing set of conditions will win.”
Lamb was hopeful of getting his act together, saying: “If I can beat Bonhomme or finish as the fastest loser, we still have a chance to move ahead in to the next round and that what we will be looking to do.
“This is the first time that I had a disqualification, which shows we cannot take things easy and anything can happen.”
Hall was delighted with his showing and felt he reaped the rewards of sticking to his plan.
“The plan was to go up there and play a safe line and that’s what I did. I can go faster than that but the plan was to get zero penalties,” said Hall, who for the 2015 season has modified his MXS-R race plane by adding winglets.
“The winglets are working fine and it seems like it is carrying more energy in the track. It’s been nice for me and we will stick with them for the race.”
Rookies Francois Le Vot of France and Juan Velarde of Spain, promoted from the Challenger Class, were the first to take to the skies. Though Le Vot faltered on gate 12, hitting a pylon to lose two vital seconds, Velarde was clinical in his maiden Master Class qualifying flight. The Spaniard zipped through the obstacle course in 1:01.514 and was placed ninth.
