2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship

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.

2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship

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2014

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2016

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

No.	Pilot	Aircraft	Rounds
22	Hannes Arch[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
91	Péter Besenyei[1]	Corvus Racer 540	1–3
		Zivko Edge 540[2]	4–8
55	Paul Bonhomme[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
10	Kirby Chambliss[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
21	Matthias Dolderer[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
99	Michael Goulian[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
95	Matt Hall[1]	MX Aircraft MXS	All
27	Nicolas Ivanoff[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
9	Nigel Lamb[1]	MX Aircraft MXS	All
12	François Le Vot[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
84	Pete McLeod[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
31	Yoshihide Muroya[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
8	Martin Šonka[1]	Zivko Edge 540	All
26	Juan Velarde[1]	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.^[1]

Challenger Class

• All Challenger Cup Pilots used an Extra 330LX.^[3]

No.	Pilot	Rounds
77	Francis Barros[4]	1–3, 5–7
62	Florian Bergér[4]	1–2, 4–8
5	Cristian Bolton[1]	1–5, 7–8
11	Mikaël Brageot[1]	1, 3–4, 6–8
18	Petr Kopfstein[1]	1–2, 4–8
37	Peter Podlunšek[1]	2–8
17	Daniel Ryfa[1]	1–6, 8

Race calendar and results

The eight-event calendar for the 2015 season was announced on 25 November 2014.^[5] 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.^[6]

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

Pos. 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 Pos. Pilot ABU CHI ROV BUD ASC SPE FTW LVG Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – 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

Pos.	Pilot	ABU	CHI	ROV	BUD	ASC	SPE	FTW	Drop	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
Pos.	Pilot	ABU	CHI	ROV	BUD	ASC	SPE	FTW	Drop	Points

Final

Main article: 2015 Red Bull Air Race of Las Vegas

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