The Championship Is For Arch To Lose After Porto

Paul Bonhomme has got to be the unluckiest sportsman around right now. He was only able to make one qualifying run on Saturday at the Red Bull Air Race in Porto and Gaia, and could not even register a single point because his plane went over 12 g for seven-tenths of a second and thus had to be grounded and inspected.

As a result, Paul kissed Porto goodbye with no hardware to take home. This left the door open to Hannes Arch, Mike Mangold and Kirby Chambliss. Mike and Kirby each had 36 points going into this race while Hannes was tied with Paul at 45.

Nigel Lamb appeared to be the guy to jump into the mix with his beautiful Breitling-yellow MXS aircraft, but it was not to be as Steve Jones pipped him to get into the all-important semi-final.

With the semis made, it was Chambliss against Jones while Mangold took on Arch. Chambliss took out Jones without much of a problem while Arch had to fight a little against Mangold. Finals were Chambliss against Arch while the third place flyoff was Mangold against Jones.

Mangold took out last year's Porto winner, Steve Jones, for third place. In the finals, Hannes Arch took out Kirby Chambliss by over one second to win the Porto stop of the Red Bull Air Race world series.

With this win, Hannes Arch now leads the standings with 54 points, a full race ahead of second place man Paul Bonhomme. Kirby Chambliss and Mike Mangold are effectively eliminated from championship contention. They have 44 and 43 points respectively.

The only way for Hannes to lose the title that is in his grasp is by not scoring at the next race in Perth and Paul Bonhomme winning it.

If Arch does manage to win, he will become the youngest ever Red Bull Air Race champion at only 41, his birthday being September 22nd.

So, we have a very interesting final round, in about two months time. The pilots will take a rest and relaxation break and hope to see you all in Perth!