Revenge is speed

The first Red Bull Air Race 2008 brought some unexpected surprises, changed the balance of power and brought new challengers into the light. Following is a race analysis in numbers.

Five seconds ahead of Kirby Chambliss, placed second. Almost six ahead of Mike Mangold, his most arch rival. These were Paul Bonhomme’s interim times at the first Wednesday training, which induced pallor on the faces of his competition despite Abu Dhabi’s blazing sun. “The others just didn’t deal well with the wind,” Bonhomme said, not without irony.

0.43: Mangold's 2007 lead

The blink-of-an-eye time of 0.43 seconds, which cost Paul Bonhomme the championship title in 2007, ate away at the near winner the whole winter through. “That’s why we worked so hard in winter and made a few changes to the plane,” Bonhomme said. Changes that he’d already mentioned in an interview before the race – if not entirely honestly: “I like narcissus. That’s why we mounted a pretty vase in the cockpit.”

7.05: Bonhomme's lead ahead of second-placed Arch

The lead of 7.05 seconds, which Bonhomme picked up in the final race against Arch, wasn’t completely explicable by a more pleasant interior design feature. As they tend to do, the competition was loitering around Bonhomme’s parked plane – throwing it the odd side-ward glance. “Maybe you can see a few of the changes from the outside; could be that you can’t,” the Brit said slyly.

1:04.76: Mangold's time

Last year’s champion Mike Mangold, who in the semi-final race against Hannes Arch was a narrow one-and-half seconds slower than the winner in the finals, thinks he’s found the key to the secret of Bonhomme’s new wonder plane: “It’s the aerodynamics. On the faster circuits they give him a decided advantage. My plane, on the other hand, is exactly like Kirby’s, more versatile. In San Diego everything’s going to look very different again.”

28: Arch's start number

Hannes Arch also seems to have done a thing or two right during the winter break. The Austrian flew to second place in Abu Dhabi and was “as happy as if [he’d] won it.” Arch, at 40 the third youngest in the field, in exchange beat his team-mate Mike Mangold in a direct duel – Mangold carrying the title of two-time champion and oldest pilot.