Sunny skies prevailed as the on-shore breeze fought off the pressing cloud cover. It was these same winds that gave the Red Bull Air Race pilots a hard time as each one fought for qualifying position. Each plane was buffeted about while trying desperately to avoid penalties. Onlookers were treated to some spectacular racing, which in today’s case included two collisions with breakaway pylons!

After two qualifying runs, American, Kirby Chambliss, came out the clear and away winner. After a very mediocre season, it seems that Chambliss has found the speed he was looking for in a nearly drag-less wing design. Skeptics were silenced on Kirby’s second run, as he was the only pilot on the day to drop into the 1:26 range.

Season point’s leader and three-time winner on the series, Mike Mangold had the complete opposite experience today. Accruing 13-seconds worth of penalties in his first run, Mangold never seemed to find the speed he is used to. Not able to recover, Mangold finds himself qualified tenth of thirteen pilots.
Pilot Run Time
K. Chambliss 1:26.56
P. Besenyei 1:27.20
P. Bonhomme 1:27.37
N. Lamb 1:27.82
M. Goulian 1:28.77
S. Jones 1:29.66
N. Ivanoff 1:30.52
S. Rakhmanin 1:30.66
H. Arch 1:31.05
M. Mangold 1:31.55
A. Maclean 1:32.17
F. Versteegh 1:36.07
K. Schrodt 1:40.13
Daniel Grund
Jörg Mitter