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MANGOLD HOPES TO BOUNCE BACK AGAINST BONHOMME AT HOME

Defending Red Bull Air Race World Series champion Mike Mangold is hoping the second race of the season in San Diego will be better suited to his Edge 540 plane than Abu Dhabi, where Britain's Paul Bonhomme thoroughly dominated the season opener and picked up 9 championship points.

Mangold, who finished a disappointing third (7 points) in Abu Dhabi after losing the semi-final to Austria's Hannes Arch (8), is looking forward to the race in his home state of California on 3 and 4 May. He is hoping for the chance to get back on top of the standings after Bonhomme, last year's runner-up in the championship, snatched the early lead with the awe-inspiring victory in Abu Dhabi.

‘Seven points is better than none, we did the best we could,’ a resigned Mangold said before packing up in Abu Dhabi. ‘Paul's got a very good plane. His plane was faster on this course than mine. It's pretty obvious it's not pilot skill. It's the plane. I think more turns in San Diego and some modifications on the plane will help us and we can do better there.’

Bonhomme, who put in a tremendous performance in Abu Dhabi, dominating training, Qualifying, the Super Eights, Semi-Finals and Final, was not offended by Mangold's tacit snub of his skills. ‘Well, hopefully my plane will be good for all of the courses all year long too,’ Bonhomme said with a smile. Bonhomme, of course, has not forgotten his win in San Diego last year while Mangold, who had a weekend to forget, was fifth.

In front of a crowd of 400,000 in Abu Dhabi, the first race of the fourth season produced a number of surprises beyond Bonhomme's dominance ˜ especially because many observers had expected a tight battle at the top with as many as seven pilots capable of winning any given race.

Arch, in particular, was impressive with the first podium of his career in only his second season. After losing 15 kilos to 67 kilos over the winter, Arch was brilliant in flying his new Edge 540 into the semi-finals and then beating Mangold.

‘Reaching the semi-finals was a-dream-come-true for me and everything after that was icing on the cake,’ said Arch.

Also surprising was the pilots' generally positive response to the stricter enforcement of altitude regulations, which led to four disqualifications for "dangerous flying" (too low) in Qualifying and an unusually high number of 3-second penalties (flying too high). After some initial grumbling, the pilots said that was fine as long as the rules are enforced uniformly. Steve Jones said he got a 3-second penalty for flying too high even though it appeared his head was just 10 centimetres (four inches) above the line. "Next time I'll duck my head down," Jones said with a laugh.

In the meantime, the entire 380 tonnes of Red Bull Air Race infrastructure and equipment ˜ including the 12 planes and their hangars along with the grid stand and race tower ˜ has been packed up and sent on its way to San Diego.