Matt Hall of Australia (L), Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain (C) and Pete McLeod of Canada (R) celebrateduring the Flower Ceremony of the first stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on February 14, 2015. // Balasz Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool // P-20150214-00180 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. //

Bolton victorious at Red Bull Air Race Challenger Cup

Matt Hall of Australia (L), Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain (C) and Pete McLeod of Canada (R) celebrateduring the Flower Ceremony of the first stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on February 14, 2015. // Balasz Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool // P-20150214-00180 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. //
Matt Hall of Australia (L), Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain (C) and Pete McLeod of Canada (R) celebrateduring the Flower Ceremony of the first stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on February 14, 2015. // Balasz Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool // P-20150214-00180 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. //

At the 2015 Red Bull Air Race season opener in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Cristian Bolton of Chile put in a top time of 1:02.231 in to win the first Challenger Cup race of 2015 – and the first ever of his career.
ABU DHABI (UAE) – In a cloudless day on the Arabian Gulf, Petr Kopfstein of the Czech Republic finished second, and Mikael “Mika” Brageot of France also stood on the podium, in third.
Now in its second season, the Challenger Cup is new element of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship that gives the next generation of pilots the chance to develop their low-altitude flying skills under racing conditions. This weekend’s Challenger Cup field was rounded out by Daniel Ryfa of Sweden (fifth) and two pilots new to the competition, Florian Berger of Germany (fourth) and Francis
Barros of Brazil (sixth).
With all six of the talented up-and-comers eager to start the season on a high note, a beaming Bolton was clearly thrilled with his win. “I’m starting my second year in the Challenger Cup, so all that learning and experience is resulting in what happened for me today,” he said. “My last flight was in Fort Worth, Dallas last year and I finished second, which I thought was great. But this? This is really exciting.”

Challenger Class

Rank Pilot Run Time Penalties
01
Cristian Bolton
Cristian Bolton CHI 1:02.231 0:00.000
02
Petr Kopfstein
Petr Kopfstein CZE 1:02.605 0:00.000
03
Mikael Brageot
Mikael Brageot FRA 1:03.025 0:00.000
04
Florian Berger
Florian Berger GER 1:03.597 0:00.000
05
Daniel Ryfa
Daniel Ryfa SWE 1:04.735 0:02.000 More Info
06
Francis Barros
Francis Barros BRA DSQ 0