Showdown over Porto

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Showdown over Porto

Showdown over Porto

Sep 11, 2009

Just one single point separates reigning world champion Hannes Arch from his main rival, Britain’s Paul Bonhomme, as the season's showdown dawns over Porto.

After a dream start at the first race of the season in Abu Dhabi(UAE)in April, Arch has had an incredible season and relinquished the lead in the overall standings to Bonhomme after finishing fourth in Budapest (HUN) a few weeks ago.

Going into the penultimate race of the season in Porto (POR), Arch will be looking to take a huge step towards the 2009 world title in front of a huge crowd of over 500,000.

Two hard time penalties in the past two races in Windsor (CAN) and Budapest (HUN) have taken their toll on the Austrian’s hopes of securing back-to-back world titles and made the situation at the stop of the overall standings incredibly close.

With just two races to go, Bonhomme leads the bulk by a whisker with world champion Arch in second place.

But since the race in Budapest, Arch and his team have been working hard on the Edge 540’s engine to squeeze out a few more miles per hour with the same aerodynamic setup. “Looking at my last races, I hope I can win without getting any penalties. We’ve worked hard on the engine and the aircraft. I’ll try to focus as much as possible on myself. If I’m able to do that with a faster aircraft, I should be on the podium.”

However, the Austrian is aware that it is his position in relation to Bonhomme that is more important than victory: “The expectations are simple: we want to finish the race in front of Bonhomme. Of course we’re going to focus as well on the Qualifying round on Saturday in order to get one point and equalise the championship standings.”

Qualifying for the race in Porto is scheduled for Saturday, with the main race taking off on Sunday.

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