Qualifying Counts As Air Race Field Tightens

E365 -- There has been a palpable rise in tension for pilots in qualifying sessions of this year’s Red Bull Air Race World Series for a number of reasons - the gap between the faster and slower planes has narrowed, only the first eight now get tickets to the finals on race day, and last season’s down-to-the-wire championship proved that every single point, indeed every single fraction of a second, matters in the 10-race season and can make a vital difference.

Paul Bonhomme, the Red Bull Air Race World Series’ leader with two victories in the first two races of the season in Abu Dhabi and San Diego, also emphatically won both qualifying sessions so far this year. The Brit, who finished a heart-breaking fraction of a second behind American Mike Mangold in 2007, said the Qualifying was serious business.

"Qualifying is an important day and you need to do well," Bonhomme said, pointing out that if bad weather were to ground the planes on race day the qualifying times would be used to award World Series points. Even thought the sun was shining in San Diego after qualifying, Bonhomme was worried about giving up anything and had an eye on the weather.

"These times count now. The training sessions before qualifying are maybe not so important but in qualifying you need to start performing. It’s important to do well in case we get fogged in on race day."

Bonhomme is an authority on collecting points due to bad weather. In 2006 he got his first Red Bull Air Race World Series victory. The race in his home country at Longleat was cancelled due to bad weather so the previous day’s qualifying times were used. This is the only time that has happened and weather conditions would have to be extremely bad in order to cancel a race.

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