2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship

2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship
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The 2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship was the tenth Red Bull Air Race World Championship series, contested over eight events in seven countries held between February and October.

British pilot Paul Bonhomme won his third world title by five points, after winning half of the eight races. His closest challenger was Australian pilot Matt Hall, and the pair finished well clear at the top of the championship. Bonhomme won the opening two races of the season in Abu Dhabi and Chiba, before an eighth-place finish – his worst result of the season – in Rovinj, saw Hall tie his points tally with three podium finishes. After Austria's Hannes Arch won in Rovinj and Budapest, Bonhomme and Hall shared the remaining victories between them; Bonhomme won at Ascot and Fort Worth, while Hall took his first Air Race victories at the Red Bull Ring and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Arch completed the championship podium, some 42 points in arrears of Bonhomme.

The series also maintained the Challenger Cup format that was introduced for the 2014 season, for young pilots to develop their skills. Each pilot entered at least five races in order to accrue points towards the Cup rankings, with the top six pilots after the Fort Worth event being invited to a winner-takes-all event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mikaël Brageot of France – who had topped the Cup rankings – won the race by 0.035 seconds over Peter Podlunšek, to take the title.

Aircraft and pilots

Master Class

No. Pilot Aircraft Rounds
22 Austria Hannes Arch[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
91 Hungary Péter Besenyei[1] Corvus Racer 540 1–3
Zivko Edge 540[2] 4–8
55 United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
10 United States Kirby Chambliss[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
21 Germany Matthias Dolderer[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
99 United States Michael Goulian[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
95 Australia Matt Hall[1] MX Aircraft MXS All
27 France Nicolas Ivanoff[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
9 United Kingdom Nigel Lamb[1] MX Aircraft MXS All
12 France François Le Vot[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
84 Canada Pete McLeod[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
31 Japan Yoshihide Muroya[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
8 Czech Republic Martin Šonka[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
26 Spain Juan Velarde[1] Zivko Edge 540 All
Entering

Challenger Class

No. Pilot Rounds
77 Brazil Francis Barros[4] 1–3, 5–7
62 Germany Florian Bergér[4] 1–2, 4–8
5 Chile Cristian Bolton[1] 1–5, 7–8
11 France Mikaël Brageot[1] 1, 3–4, 6–8
18 Czech Republic Petr Kopfstein[1] 1–2, 4–8
37 Slovenia Peter Podlunšek[1] 2–8
17 Sweden Daniel Ryfa[1] 1–6, 8

Race calendar and results

The eight-event calendar for the 2015 season was announced on 25 November 2014.[5] An updated race calendar was released on 3 March 2015, which dropped the round in Sochi, Russia and the round in Rovinj, Croatia returned to the calendar.[6]

Round Country Location Date Fastest Qualifying Winning Pilot Winning Aircraft Winning Challenger Report
1  United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi 13–14 February United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Chile Cristian Bolton report
2  Japan Makuhari, Chiba 16–17 May France Nicolas Ivanoff United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Czech Republic Petr Kopfstein report
3  Croatia Rovinj 30–31 May United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme Austria Hannes Arch Zivko Edge 540 Sweden Daniel Ryfa report
4  Hungary Budapest 4–5 July Australia Matt Hall Austria Hannes Arch Zivko Edge 540 Sweden Daniel Ryfa report
5  United Kingdom Ascot Racecourse, Ascot 15–16 August United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Czech Republic Petr Kopfstein report
6  Austria Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 5–6 September cancelled Australia Matt Hall MX Aircraft MXS France Mikaël Brageot report
7  United States Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth 26–27 September Germany Matthias Dolderer United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 France Mikaël Brageot report
8  United States Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas 17–18 October Japan Yoshihide Muroya Australia Matt Hall MX Aircraft MXS France Mikaël Brageot report

Championship standings

Master Class

Master Class scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9–14th 
Points 12 9 7 5 4 3 2 1 0
Pos. Pilot ABU
United Arab Emirates
CHI
Japan
ROV
Croatia
BUD
Hungary
ASC
United Kingdom
SPE
Austria
FTW
United States
LVG
United States
Points
1 United Kingdom Paul Bonhomme 1 1 8 2 1 2 1 2 76
2 Australia Matt Hall 2 2 3 5 2 1 2 1 71
3 Austria Hannes Arch 4 11 1 1 8 13 10 5 34
4 Czech Republic Martin Šonka 10 10 2 3 7 4 4 8 29
5 Germany Matthias Dolderer 9 3 6 7 10 6 5 3 26
6 Japan Yoshihide Muroya 6 8 10 9 3 10 3 4 23
7 United Kingdom Nigel Lamb 5 5 5 8 5 12 6 10 20
8 Canada Pete McLeod 3 12 7 4 13 5 8 11 19
9 France Nicolas Ivanoff 8 4 9 14 4 9 7 7 15
10 United States Michael Goulian 12 6 4 11 9 7 9 6 13
11 United States Kirby Chambliss DNS 7 11 10 12 3 11 12 9
12 Hungary Péter Besenyei 7 13 12 6 6 8 12 13 9
13 Spain Juan Velarde 13 9 13 13 11 11 13 9 0
14 France François Le Vot 11 14 14 12 14 DSQ 14 14 0
Pos. Pilot ABU
United Arab Emirates
CHI
Japan
ROV
Croatia
BUD
Hungary
ASC
United Kingdom
SPE
Austria
FTW
United States
LVG
United States
Points
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Retired (Ret)
Red Did not qualify (DNQ)
Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
Withdrew (WD)
Race cancelled (C)
Blank Did not participate (DNP)
Excluded (EX)

Bold – Fastest Qualifying Pilot

Challenger Class

As in 2014, Challenger Class pilots had to compete in at least three races throughout the season, with each pilot's best three scores counting towards the Challenger Cup ranking. The top six pilots in the ranking qualified for a winner-takes-all race at the end of the season.

Challenger Class scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th 
Points 10 8 6 4 2 0

Ranking

Pos. Pilot ABU
United Arab Emirates
CHI
Japan
ROV
Croatia
BUD
Hungary
ASC
United Kingdom
SPE
Austria
FTW
United States
Drop Points
1 France Mikaël Brageot 3 2 2 1 1 14 28
2 Sweden Daniel Ryfa 5 2 1 1 3 3 14 28
3 Czech Republic Petr Kopfstein 2 1 4 1 2 6 12 28
4 Chile Cristian Bolton 1 3 3 5 2 4 12 24
5 Slovenia Peter Podlunšek 6 4 3 4 4 2 8 18
6 Germany Florian Bergér 4 4 6 5 5 3 4 14
7 Brazil Francis Barros DSQ 5 5 6 6 5 6
Pos. Pilot ABU
United Arab Emirates
CHI
Japan
ROV
Croatia
BUD
Hungary
ASC
United Kingdom
SPE
Austria
FTW
United States
Drop Points

Final

At the last race of the season at Las Vegas, the top six pilots in the standings took part in a race to determine the final ranking of the Challenger Cup.

Rank Pilots Time
1 France Mikaël Brageot 1:00.521
2 Slovenia Peter Podlunšek 1:00.556
3 Chile Cristian Bolton 1:00.920
4 Czech Republic Petr Kopfstein 1:02.117
5 Germany Florian Bergér 1:02.255
6 Sweden Daniel Ryfa 1:02.459

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "pilots". RedBullAirRace.com. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  2. "Besenyei unveils new raceplane". Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Red Bull Air Race GmbH. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  3. "New Challenger Cup ready to take off in 2014". RedBullAirRace.com. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  4. 1 2 "New Challenger Cup duo land for 2015". RedBullAirRace.com. 11 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  5. "2015 race dates announced in Japan". RedBullAirRace.com. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  6. "Red Bull Air Race Announces New Race Location for 2015 Season". RedBullAirRace.com. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.

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