A second-place finish was good enough for Great Britain's Nigel Lamb to win the Red Bull Air Race World Championship title with 62 points here yesterday
Flying solo! Great Britain's Nigel Lamb during the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Spielberg yesterday
Spielberg (Austria): A second-place finish was good enough for Great Britain's Nigel Lamb to win the Red Bull Air Race World Championship title with 62 points here yesterday.
Flying solo! Great Britain's Nigel Lamb during the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Spielberg yesterday
In the final four rounds, Lamb clocked 00:58.052, behind France's Nicolas Ivanoff, who was 00:00.584 quicker. Martin Sonka of Czech Republic finished third, clocking 00:59.704. Ivanoff finished fourth in the World Championship standings with 42 points.
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In the Super 8 round, Lamb was placed fourth with a timing of 00:57.728, while it was local pilot Hannes Arch leading with a timing of 00:56.701.
Cheered by a vociferous 35,000-odd crowd, Arch was in terrific form during the weekend. In the Final 4 round, Arch was close to winning the World Championship, but struggled on the undulating course with its challenging 65m change in elevation forcing him to take risks on the second lap.
Unfortunately, a two-second penalty for flying through one of the Air Gates with his wings not within the prescribed level, saw Arch drop to fourth place.
Lamb, who has been on the podium six times and has finished runners up on five occasions in the circuit races, said: "My race didn't go the way I planned. It wasn't a great start for me today.
"Hannes has been fast all week and I thought he was going to take the championship title. I am happy that in the end I won."
Arch felt he succumbed to pressure. "I did everything right till the Final 8. But I tried a bit too hard to be the fastest in the Final 4 round and that cost me the championship. I'm disappointed to lose the title in front of my home crowd."
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