He's The Man To Beat, But It's Still Early

Britain's Paul Bonhomme got his Air Race World Series season off to a flying start Friday. with a resounding victory in the final against Hannes Arch of Austria. Event organizers report over 250,000 spectators lined the beaches of the Corniche in Abu Dhabi to watch the first race of the 2008 series.

Bonhomme -- an airline captain from Cambridgeshire, who was runner-up in the championship last season to American Mike Mangold by a heartbreaking fraction of a second -- got sweet revenge in the United Arab Emirates.

He also demoralized the other 11 pilots in the process... by posting scintillating times throughout the training and qualifying sessions in his newly modified Edge 540.

Arch took second place, his highest finish ever after upsetting his former teammate Mangold in the semi-final, while Mangold took third after winning the 3rd Place Fly-Off against Peter Besenyei of Hungary.

In sweltering temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius and gusty winds of up to 30 kilometres per hour, Bonhomme was in a class of his own, recording the fastest times in all training sessions earlier in the week and dominating the Qualifying sessions on Thursday.

FMI: www.redbullairrace.com