Qualifying of the Red Bull Air Race in Porto, Portugal

Britains Paul Bonhomme widened his lead in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship on Saturday to 2 points over Hannes Arch of Austria by posting the fastest time in Qualifying in Porto ahead of Sundays penultimate race of the season. Rookies Matt Hall of Australia, Yoshi Muroya of Japan and Matthias Dolderer of Germany all put in brilliant performances in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 in Porto under bright blue skies.

Bonhomme, who now has 43 championship points, clocked the best time of the time of the day (1:10.03) in his first Qualifying run on the 6.6-km course with 17 Air Gates before the winds coming in off the Atlantic Ocean picked up in the afternoon and slowed many of the pilots in the second Qualifying session. The out and back narrow track on the Douro River is the fastest on the circuit. American Kirby Chambliss grabbed 2nd place, 0.23 seconds behind Bonhomme, while Hall came 3rd. The surprise of the day was Muroya, who grabbed a sensational fourth place. Dolderer took 5th.
The Porto race will be streamed live on http://www.redbullairrace.com on Sunday, September 13 2009.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Qualification
• Qualifying
• Porto
• Redbull
• Air
• Race

[CharlieReZa]

Go bonhomme.

Derserves a win at last

[carlibowers]

Bonhomme will go all the way now and at last we will have a thoroughly deserving UK world champion!