Frenchman Francois Le Vot held off Daniel Ryfa to win the first race of the newly-introduced Challenger Cup of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship at Abu Dhabi Corniche on Friday.
Only 0.025sec was the difference between Le Vot and Sweden’s Ryfa as Spaniard Juan Velarde completed the podium in the opening leg of the championship.
Three-time Czech national champion Petr Kopfstein finished fourth, while fifth place went to Great Britain’s Tom Bennett. Le Vot’s compatriot Mikael Brageot finished last after receiving a one-second penalty for smoke violation.
“The spirit remains the same, to prepare mentally and physically. For pure technique, aerobatics has nothing in common with the race. I felt I have improved a lot and it feels good to win the race,” said Le Vot, who picked up 10 points.
“We have all felt the same thing in the race – it was just like a training flight and I feel we have all accomplished a great achievement,” added Le Vot, who represents the French military aerobatic team.
With all Challenger Cup pilots flying the Extra 330LX, for runnerup Ryfa, who doesn’t have much experience with the plane, the result was very satisfying.
“Flying the plane was really great. I really liked this concept (Challenger Cup) and am pleased to get this result on a plane that I wasn’t too familiar with,” said the 29-year-old, who was crowned European Advanced Aerobatic Champion in 2009.
Third-placed Velarde, 39, was thrilled to be on the podium after admitting that he was nervous before and during the race.
“Emotions played a big part. To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about what result I wanted to achieve as I was nervous.
“But I kept calm in the race and flew well,” said the 2007 World Aerobatic Championship silver medallist.
A new feature for this year’s championship, the Challenger Cup gives eight new pilots from seven countries the chance to develop their low-altitude skills similar to the Master Class.
The pilots must fly a minimum of three races, with the top six of the highest total scores accumulated during the season, to compete in the last leg in China (November) for a chance to win the Challenger Cup.
Only Slovenia’s Peter Podlunsek and 25-year-old Claudius Spiegel of Germany were absent from yesterday’s opening leg.
“The aim of the Challenger Cup is to introduce new guys to the standards required for the Master Class and it’s been fantastic start so far,” said race director Steve Jones.
“The guys haven’t done this before and hopefully we will be seeing these guys in the Masters Class in the future.”
RESULTS
1. Francois Le Vot (1:02:654) – 10pts
2. Daniel Ryfa (1:02:679) – 8
3. Juan Velarde (1:03:281) – 6
4. Petr Kopfstein (1:03:778) – 4
5. Tom Bennett (1:04:396) – 2
6. Mikael Brageot (1:04556) – 0
