Solid 8th place for Ben Murphy in Budapest

Ben Murphy flies under the bridge in Budapest (Image: Armin Walcher / Red Bull Content Pool)
Ben Murphy flies under the bridge in Budapest (Image: Armin Walcher / Red Bull Content Pool)

Czech Martin Sonka wins Budapest round

Ben Murphy secured a solid 8th place in the Budapest Air Race yesterday.

Ben, who qualified in 8th place, blast through the masterclass round of 14 by beating two-time champion Kirby Chambliss with a time of 59.996.

The round of 8 saw Ben pitted against an in-form Michael Goulian. Both pilots were awarded penalties in the round but Ben’s 4 seconds of added time saw him lose out 59.486s to 1.02.264s.

Ben said: “It was fantastic here this week; a lot of firsts and obviously flying under the bridge. We got through to the Round of 8 again so that’s in 50 per cent of our races so far, so we’re very happy. Arguably, and with the benefit of hindsight, we pushed a little too hard in the heat against Mikey Goulian, but our tactic was that we knew we had to push, but just a little too hard. We got more points on the championship board and just the experience of getting through to the Round of 8 again is a massively valuable learning experience for us. The plane is performing well, the team is performing well, and we’ll just carry on with the way we’re going.”

Czech pilot Martin Sonka was the overall winner

Full Budapest Results

Rank Pilot Country Time Pentalties Points
1 Martin Sonka – Winner CZE 0:57.502 0:00.000 15
2 Mika Brageot FRA 0:57.849 0:00.000 12
3 Matt Hall AUS 0:58.163 0:00.000 9
4 Michael Goulian USA 1:04.256 0:07.000 7
5 Francois Le Vot FRA 0:58.786 0:00.000 6
6 Cristian Bolton CHI 0:59.124 0:00.000 5
7 Nicolas Ivanoff FRA 1:00.249 0:00.000 4
8 Ben Murphy GBR 1:02.264 0:04.000 3
9 Petr Kopfstein CZE 0:59.465 0:00.000 2
10 Kirby Chambliss USA 0:59.528 0:02.000 1
11 Yoshihide Muroya JPN DNF 0 0
12 Pete McLeod CAN DNF 0 0
13 Juan Velarde ESP DNF 0 0
14 Matthias Dolderer GER DNS 0 0

 

About Nick Harding 1897 Articles
Nick is the senior reporter and editor at UK Aviation News as well as working freelance elsewhere. He has his finger firmly on the pulse on Aviation, not only in the UK but worldwide. Nick has been asked to speak in a professional capacity on LBC, Heart and other broadcast networks.