Austrian suffers 2 pylon hits in training, Bonhomme hopes still alive

After suffering two nerve-racking pylon hits in each of his first two training sessions in Perth, Hannes Arch finally settled down in the third and final timed session on Friday before the weekend’s Red Bull Air Race to record the second fastest result of the day behind rival Paul Bonhomme. The Brit, the only pilot who still has a shot of snatching the World Championship away from Arch, applied pressure on the second-year sensation from Austria with a superb time of 1:14.34 on the treacherous Perth course full of gusting winds and tight turns. Bonhomme’s time was 0.96 seconds second faster than Arch, who is 9 points ahead of Bonhomme in the Championship with 54 points.

“It’s very good to have him feeling the pressure,” said Bonhomme, who has 45 points and could win the title if he were to collect 9 points for a victory on Sunday and Arch fails to score any points – which hasn’t happened to the Austrian in the Edge 540 since last year’s race in Perth. “We’ve got to put the pressure on him. It’d be rude if we didn’t. It wouldn’t be any fun if we just let him romp away and win.”

Arch, who moved ahead of Bonhomme into the lead with a victory in the last race in Porto, insisted he wasn’t bothered by the two pylon hits – even though one in Friday’s early session was a direct hit. “It’s better to hit the pylon now than on race day,” Arch said after Friday’s first session. “I didn’t just nick it with the propeller. I hit it with the whole plane. I flew straight into it and the pylon exploded. But that’s what they’re here for. I don’t think it had anything to do with nerves, not at all. I felt really good out there, really calm. Even after the pylon hit I did a fast time on the rest of the track, so I’m confident. This was only training and the objective is to go for the max and find the best line. One line today obviously didn’t work.”

Source: www.redbullairrace.com

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