Florian Bergér showed once again that he is the man to beat in the Challenger Cup as he took the first race win of the year with a lightning quick time of 57.728s. Current Champion Czepiela was given a DNF for exceeding the maximum-G, ensuring his title defence starts in the worst possible way.

It feels like a lifetime ago since the 2018 season final in Fort Worth took place. But the first Race Day of 2019 is finally here. The times are close and it’s a clean sheet for all 14 Master Class pilots. Here’s how they will line up for the first Round of 14…

The Challenger Class of the Red Bull Air Race has been a feeder series for the Master Class since its introduction in 2014. There have been seven pilots make the move up in the five seasons, and this leaves room in the Challenger camp for more pilots to begin their Red Bull Air Race career.

One pilot competing in his first race today is 25-year-old southern Californian Sammy Mason. No matter his final performance today, he will make history by being the youngest pilot ever to compete in an Air Race – no pressure then...

The first Qualifying session of 2019 was a nail-biter, made more exciting by the fact that the top three all collected World Championship points. Here's what they thought of today's flying...

Yoshihide Muroya seems to have adapted to the new rules the quickest and it showed in Qualifying as he took the top spot, and with it the first three Championship points of the season.

Plenty of the pilots have struggled with the new over-G rule, where if they hit 11G they collect a one second penalty, however Muroya had no such issues when he set a session-winning time of 53.024s.

It was the last session for the Challengers before their first race of the season. Here’s how they feel going into the season opener.

Luke Czepiela
“It was OK today, I didn’t fly at full force. I’m pleased I’m not flying first tomorrow which is always a relief. The second lap was fast with just a tiny over-G, so if I avoid that it’ll be good and I like my chances."

Florian Bergér has kept up his perfect Abu Dhabi 2019 record by topping the Qualifying timesheet. The German pilot has been the quickest Challenger in every session since arriving in the UAE.

Melanie Astles was first to fly in the track and set a very competitive time of 58.391s, but Bergér was able to better the French pilot’s time, only just, by 0.053s putting him top again.

Current Champion Luke Czepiela was third, but was smooth in his flying and will have more to give. Dario Costa was just behind Czepiela with a time of 58.608s – 0.270s off the top spot.