The 2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship was the tenth Red Bull Air Race World Championship series, contested over eight events in seven countries held between February and October.

British pilot Paul Bonhomme won his third world title by five points, after winning half of the eight races. His closest challenger was Australian pilot Matt Hall, and the pair finished well clear at the top of the championship. Bonhomme won the opening two races of the season in Abu Dhabi and Chiba, before an eighth-place finish – his worst result of the season – in Rovinj, saw Hall tie his points tally with three podium finishes. After Austria's Hannes Arch won in Rovinj and Budapest, Bonhomme and Hall shared the remaining victories between them; Bonhomme won at Ascot and Fort Worth, while Hall took his first Air Race victories at the Red Bull Ring and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Arch completed the championship podium, some 42 points in arrears of Bonhomme.

The series also maintained the Challenger Cup format that was introduced for the 2014 season, for young pilots to develop their skills. Each pilot entered at least five races in order to accrue points towards the Cup rankings, with the top six pilots after the Fort Worth event being invited to a winner-takes-all event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Mikaël Brageot of France – who had topped the Cup rankings – won the race by 0.035 seconds over Peter Podlunšek, to take the title.

Aircraft and pilots

Master Class

Pilot Aircraft Rounds 22 Hannes Arch Zivko Edge 540 All 91 Péter Besenyei Corvus Racer 540 1–3 Zivko Edge 540 4–8 55 Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 All 10 Kirby Chambliss Zivko Edge 540 All 21 Matthias Dolderer Zivko Edge 540 All 99 Michael Goulian Zivko Edge 540 All 95 Matt Hall MX Aircraft MXS All 27 Nicolas Ivanoff Zivko Edge 540 All 9 Nigel Lamb MX Aircraft MXS All 12 François Le Vot Zivko Edge 540 All 84 Pete McLeod Zivko Edge 540 All 31 Yoshihide Muroya Zivko Edge 540 All 8 Martin Šonka Zivko Edge 540 All 26 Juan Velarde Zivko Edge 540 All Entering Challenger Class competitors François Le Vot and Juan Velarde, who were fourth and eighth respectively in 2014, joined the Master Class.

Challenger Class

All Challenger Cup Pilots used an Extra 330LX. Pilot Rounds 77 Francis Barros 1–3, 5–7 62 Florian Bergér 1–2, 4–8 5 Cristian Bolton 1–5, 7–8 11 Mikaël Brageot 1, 3–4, 6–8 18 Petr Kopfstein 1–2, 4–8 37 Peter Podlunšek 2–8 17 Daniel Ryfa 1–6, 8

Race calendar and results

The eight-event calendar for the 2015 season was announced on 25 November 2014. An updated race calendar was released on 3 March 2015, which dropped the round in Sochi, Russia and the round in Rovinj, Croatia returned to the calendar.

Round Country Location Date Fastest Qualifying Winning Pilot Winning Aircraft Winning Challenger Report 1 Abu Dhabi 13–14 February Paul Bonhomme Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Cristian Bolton report 2 Makuhari, Chiba 16–17 May Nicolas Ivanoff Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Petr Kopfstein report 3 Rovinj 30–31 May Paul Bonhomme Hannes Arch Zivko Edge 540 Daniel Ryfa report 4 Budapest 4–5 July Matt Hall Hannes Arch Zivko Edge 540 Daniel Ryfa report 5 Ascot Racecourse, Ascot 15–16 August Paul Bonhomme Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Petr Kopfstein report 6 Red Bull Ring, Spielberg 5–6 September cancelled Matt Hall MX Aircraft MXS Mikaël Brageot report 7 Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth 26–27 September Matthias Dolderer Paul Bonhomme Zivko Edge 540 Mikaël Brageot report 8 Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas 17–18 October Yoshihide Muroya Matt Hall MX Aircraft MXS Mikaël Brageot report

Championship standings

Master Class

Master Class scoring system Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9–14th  Points 12 9 7 5 4 3 2 1 0

Pilot ABU CHI ROV BUD ASC SPE FTW LVG Points 1 Paul Bonhomme 1 1 8 2 1 2 1 2 76 2 Matt Hall 2 2 3 5 2 1 2 1 71 3 Hannes Arch 4 11 1 1 8 13 10 5 34 4 Martin Šonka 10 10 2 3 7 4 4 8 29 5 Matthias Dolderer 9 3 6 7 10 6 5 3 26 6 Yoshihide Muroya 6 8 10 9 3 10 3 4 23 7 Nigel Lamb 5 5 5 8 5 12 6 10 20 8 Pete McLeod 3 12 7 4 13 5 8 11 19 9 Nicolas Ivanoff 8 4 9 14 4 9 7 7 15 10 Michael Goulian 12 6 4 11 9 7 9 6 13 11 Kirby Chambliss DNS 7 11 10 12 3 11 12 9 12 Péter Besenyei 7 13 12 6 6 8 12 13 9 13 Juan Velarde 13 9 13 13 11 11 13 9 0 14 François Le Vot 11 14 14 12 14 DSQ 14 14 0 Pilot ABU CHI ROV BUD ASC SPE FTW LVG PointsBold – Fastest Qualifying Pilot

Challenger Class As in 2014, Challenger Class pilots had to compete in at least three races throughout the season, with each pilot's best three scores counting towards the Challenger Cup ranking. The top six pilots in the ranking qualified for a winner-takes-all race at the end of the season.

Challenger Class scoring system Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th  Points 10 8 6 4 2 0

Ranking Pilot ABU CHI ROV BUD ASC SPE FTW Points 1 Mikaël Brageot 3 2 2 1 1 14 28 2 Daniel Ryfa 5 2 1 1 3 3 14 28 3 Petr Kopfstein 2 1 4 1 2 6 12 28 4 Cristian Bolton 1 3 3 5 2 4 12 24 5 Peter Podlunšek 6 4 3 4 4 2 8 18 6 Florian Bergér 4 4 6 5 5 3 4 14 7 Francis Barros DSQ 5 5 6 6 5 6 Pilot ABU CHI ROV BUD ASC SPE FTW Points

Final

At the last race of the season at Las Vegas, the top six pilots in the standings took part in a race to determine the final ranking of the Challenger Cup. Rank Pilots Time 1 Mikaël Brageot 1:00.521 2 Peter Podlunšek 1:00.556 3 Cristian Bolton 1:00.920 4 Petr Kopfstein 1:02.117 5 Florian Bergér 1:02.255 6 Daniel Ryfa 1:02.459

References

External links