The Red Bull Air Race World Championship returned to Abu Dhabi (UAE) in 2009 for the traditional season opener. Hannes Arch had already laid the foundations for his first ever world championship title here in 2008, and the first race of the 2009 in the United Arab Emirates season proved a perfect one for the Austrian. Having claimed the bonus point as fastest qualifier on Saturday, Arch defied sweltering temperatures of 41 degrees in the shade to take victory over Paul Bonhomme (GBR) in front of 100,000 fans. The result meant that Arch had established a three-point lead over Bonhomme in the overall world championship standings after just one race.

The Austrian’s good form continued in Qualifying for the second race of the year in San Diego (USA) just a few weeks later. Arch posted the fastest time of the session, a whole 2.20 seconds ahead of Bonhomme, and picked up his second bonus point in a row. Sunday’s race had also been going to plan until a spectacular collision with a pelican cost Arch, who had been leading until that point, the win. Despite a gaping hole in the tailplane of the Austrian’s Edge 540, the reigning world champion was able to keep a cool head and still take third place.

The third stop of the World Championship 2009 saw the Red Bull Air Race visit Canada for the first time. However, Arch was not able to stretch his run of good results in Qualifying to the session in Windsor, as two penalty seconds forced the 41-year-old back three places into fifth. Arch hit back in the race on Sunday with the fastest time of the week, but two more penalty seconds for Incorrect Level at the final chicane meant Arch finished behind Bonhomme in second place. After three of six races, the Austrian had just the narrowest of leads ahead of Britain’s Bonhomme in the overall world championship standings.     

The long summer break was brought to a close by the fourth race of the season in Budapest (HUN). With hundreds of fans travelling to the Hungarian capital each year to line the banks of the river in front of the National Parliament, this stop has become somewhat of a home race for the reigning world champion from Styria. After strong Training results, Arch took second in Qualifying. However, two questionable penalty seconds put paid to any hopes of a home victory for the Austrian, with Arch having to settle for fourth place in front of 650,000 on the Hungarian National Holiday as Bonhomme took second behind Michael Goulian (USA) to close the gap on Arch in the overall standings to just one point.

Race number five of six was held in the beautiful port of Porto (POR). Qualifying on Saturday saw Arch make his first major mistake in the 2009 season as he could only manage ninth place. Bonhomme seized his chance and picked up the bonus point to draw level with the Austrian in the overall standings. Just one day later the two were involved in a head-to-head battle in the final of the main race, with the Briton proving the stronger of the two title favourites. His win in Portugal meant that, for the first time, Bonhomme went into the lead in the overall standings, four points ahead of Hannes Arch.

It all came down to the final stop in Barcelona (ESP), and this time it was Arch under pressure to pull something out of the bag. Problems with the compression ratio of his motor meant that the Austrian was forced to fly first in Saturday’s Qualifying session – and promptly posted the fastest time of the day to take the one bonus point and close the gap on Bonhomme to just two points going into the final race of the year. However, the dream of a spectacular last-minute comeback wasn’t to be as Arch picked up six penalty seconds after a spectacular pylon hit while pushing his plane to the limit in one final throw of the dice. Bonhomme was fortunate to qualify for the Final Eight, but then showed his class to win the final race of the season and crown himself Red Bull Air Race World Champion 2009 in front of 1.2 million ecstatic fans.

An appropriate end to a thrilling season. Having been forced to put up with the reputation of being always the bridesmaid and never the bride, Paul Bonhomme banished the memories of finishing runner up in 2006, 2007 and 2008 to finally claim the biggest prize for himself. Reigning world champion Hannes Arch fought right to the bitter end in a valiant attempt to become the first pilot in the history of the Red Bull Air Race to defend his title, but it wasn’t to be. One thing is for sure: 2010 is going to be one hell of a season…