Britain‘s Paul Bonhomme Wins The Red Bull Air Race World Championship‘s First-Ever Race In Japan

Australia's Matt Hall finished a close second ahead of Germany's Matthias Dolderer in third place as the world's fastest motorsport series made its debut in Eastern Asia on a challenging track set up over the water just off of Makuhari Beach. Cheered on by the enormous home crowd, Yoshihide Muroya of Japan took a solid 8th place after setting a track record in the opening round.

Hitting speeds of 230mph and enduring forces of up to 10g while flying at altitudes of less than 80 feet above the waters of the Pacific Ocean, Bonhomme was the master of the tricky track and changing winds at Makuhari Beach. He stopped the clock in 51.502 seconds with Hall 0.382 seconds behind. With his 17th career victory in the second race of the eight-stop 2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship, Bonhomme widened his lead at the top of the championship to 24 points ahead of Hall in second with 18 points.

"It's a really good start to the season but it was hard work," said Bonhomme, drenched in sweat after having to go all out to beat Muroya in the Round of 8. "The new knock-out format might be exciting for the crowd but it's busy for us. You end up having to fly against Yoshi who had the best time in the previous round. It's hard work. But we're delighted. We knuckled down and it paid off."

American pilots Michael Goulian and Kirby Chambliss had their best results of the 2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship season so far in Chiba, Japan on Sunday. Goulian has an entirely new team and raceplane this season, while Chambliss also added a new team member, and the changes paid off with strong performances: Goulian finished in sixth and Chambliss in seventh.

It was the 60th Red Bull Air Race since the sport was launched in 2003 and the race was warmly embraced in Chiba, the birthplace of civil aviation in Japan. A record-breaking 120,000 tickets were sold for the two days of racing action. The next Red Bull Air Race will be in Rovinj, Croatia on May 30/31.

Results:
1. Paul Bonhomme (GBR), 2. Matt Hall (AUS), 3. Matthias Dolderer (GER), 4. Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA), 5. Nigel Lamb (GBR), 6. Michael Goulian (USA), 7. Kirby Chambliss (USA), 8. Yoshihide Muroya (JPN), 9. Juan Velarde (ESP), 10. Martin Sonka (CZE), 11. Hannes Arch (AUT), 12. Pete McLeod (CAN), 13. Peter Besenyei (HUN), 14. Francois Le Vot (FRA)

World Championship Standings:
1. Bonhomme (24 points), 2. Hall (18), 3. Lamb (8), 4. Dolderer (7) 5. McLeod (7), 6. Ivanoff (6). 7. Arch (5), 8. Muroya (4), 9. Goulian (3), 10 Besenyei (2), 11. Chambliss (2), 12. Velarde (0), 13. Sonka (0), 14. Le Vot (0).

ODEA DeveloperWriter