Bonhomme Chokes, Chambliss Gets The Yolk, and Arch Pleases The Folk

London. The home race of no fewer than three pilots: Paul Bonhomme, Steve Jones and Nigel Lamb. Championship leader Bonhomme was supposed to win this race, it was all going for him.

Mike Mangold had suffered a problem with his ailerons during qualifying and had a terrible race, with his frustration getting the better of him.

Steve Jones, the third place man from a fortnight ago, ended up competing in the Point One round for a single point in the race and won. A stark contrast to two weeks ago when he was fighting for third place.

Below Steve was Glen Dell, Michael Goulian and Sergei Rakhmanin, who didn't compete.

In the Super Eights, the hometown hero, Paul Bonhomme, who by all accounts was supposed to win this for the home crowd, took two penalties and didn't register a time. He was seventh, just in front of Alejandro Maclean, who did the same.

In an interesting twist, Nigel Lamb in the yellow Breitling MXS (pictured above) saved face by coming in fifth place, 0.99 seconds behind the top four, after registering a single penalty. Had he not taken the penalty, he would have been the first MXS pilot to make it into the semis and at the very least, the third place shootout. He was outrun by Frenchman Nicolas Ivanoff. He was the highest ranking Brit in this race.

Semi-finals had Hannes Arch vs. Nicolas Ivanoff with Peter Besenyei facing Kirby Chambliss. Arch was outrun by his Corsican counterpart after hitting an air gate and taking a 10-second penalty while Chambliss breezed past Besenyei.

The final run was Ivanoff vs. Chambliss for first place and Besenyei vs. Arch for third. In the third pace flyoff, Arch played the track cleanly and cleared Peter Besenyei by over two seconds!

In the first place run, Kirby Chambliss had a clear advantage in his Edge 540 over Nicolas Ivanoff's Extra 300SR, and won by over three seconds.

The crowds were still jubilant, albeit disappointed, to not see any of their home guys take to the podium, but that's life eh?

In the standings, Kirby Chambliss made amends for his terrible performance in Rotterdam by taking 9 points today. He's tied for second with Hannes Arch - each have 36 points. Paul Bonhomme's insurmountable lead has been wittled down to only two points difference. He has 38 points. Last year's champion, Mike Mangold is languishing in fourth with only 30 points while Peter Besenyei has a solid 23 points for fifth. The only pilot to not register any points as of yet is Glen Dell, the rookie. His time will come though.

In two weeks, we head over to Budapest, the only city to have hosted a Red Bull Air Race for every year since its conception and the hometown of Peter Besenyei. See you in just over two weeks!

Photography Credit: Andy Schaad, 2008