Yesterday, May 8th 2010, thousands of people flocked to the Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro to take part of the Red Bull Air Race competition. Many people gathered close to the Sugar Loaf to take pictures and see those impressive airplanes. Below you will see photos, text and an official video of the Brazil leg of the Air Race.

Many people who live by the Flamengo beach in apartments and penthouse flats, called in their friends celebrate, drink some good Brazilian beer, and have fun above all accompanied with Red Bull, of course! It was a thrilling Saturday!



I was also part of this and invited some of my friends to watch this great show. Please see below some of my pictures, and official shoots from the event. In this post, I also reproduced the Rio Red Bull Rio Press Release.




RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Hannes Arch of Austria came from behind to beat Nigel Lamb of Britain in dramatic fashion on Saturday to win one vital championship point with the fastest Qualifying time at the Red Bull Air Race in Rio de Janeiro in front of a record qualifying-day crowd of 400,000. Britain’s Paul Bonhomme, who still leads the overall championship, was a disappointing third on the high-speed, low-altitude 5,634-metre race track set up in front of Rio’s Flamengo Beach.



Arch, who was in second place behind Lamb after the first of two Qualifying runs ahead of Sunday’s race, opened the throttle on his second run under brilliant blue skies and tropical temperatures. Although afternoon sea breezes were slowing down most of the pilots, the Austrian managed to shave nearly a second off his earlier time to deny Lamb the one point awarded to the fastest qualifier. Arch stopped the clock in 1:20.44, 0.73 ahead of Lamb and 1.18 ahead of Bonhomme. The defending champion, Bonhomme, still leads the championship with 22 points with Lamb (18) in second and Arch (15) alone in third.




An even bigger crowd of up to one million is expected for the race on Sunday. There was a crowd of one million at the first race here in 2007.

“I'm pleased I was able to raise my game today. We need every point to catch up with Paul. The engine works great and my team is working great. I'm really motivated for tomorrow,” said Arch.

“I enjoyed that,” said Lamb, who is off to the best year of his career with 18 points from the first two races. “I love the set up of the aircraft and just loved being on the track today. Of course I’m disappointed not to get the championship point. But it was a very positive day.”

As in any event in Rio de Janeiro, there were beautiful girls too!




Australia’s Matt Hall took a promising fourth place in Qualifying, just 1.54 behind Arch, while American Kirby Chambliss (5th), Frenchman Nicolas Ivanoff (6th), Canada’s Pete McLeod (7th) and American Michael Goulian (8th) were all within striking range of a podium on Sunday with less than 3.5 seconds separating the leaders. The enormous home crowd cheered heartily for Michael Goulian, who was flying in Brazilian colours after signing a sponsorship agreement with Brazilian energy company Petrobras.



It was a disappointing afternoon in Brazil for Russia’s Sergey Rakhmanin (11th), Hungary’s Peter Besenyei (12th), Japan’s Yoshi Muroya (13th) and Martin Sonka of the Czech Republic (14th). They failed to qualify for spots in Sunday’s final but will get a second chance to win the final two spots in the Wild Card competition early on Sunday.




Unfortunately, the event could not be held on Sunday due to heavy rains. All in all, the event was a great success, with most of the city taking part somehow.

Last Sunday, March 28 Rio de Janeiro saw for the first time the Class 1 racing at the Guanabara Bay. Thousands of people packed to see the race, in a beautiful shining Sunday. Below, Belavista Rio reports and publishes some photos taken at the Rio Class 1 Racing event.

Pilots Arif Al Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi completed a hat-trick of wins, winning race 2 of the Brazilian Grand Prix to take a maximum 40 points from round one of the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship and make the perfect start to the defence of their World Championship title.




Fazza 1’s Mohammed Al Marri and Abdullah Al Mehairbi pushed their teammates all the way to claim another second place finish, with Duemme - Foresti & Suardi’s all-Italian pairing of Giampaolo Montavoci and Guido Cappellini claiming a first podium, in their first Grand Prix weekend together.



The reigning world champions, led from start-to-finish, claiming a tenth race win in only their twelfth race together, a career fourteenth for both. Despite an electrical failure, Al Zafeen and Bin Hendi were able to hold off a determined challenge from their closest rivals and teammates to take the victory, completing the 71.32Nm course in 47mins 16.14secs. "I am delighted with the result after the problems we had, but sometimes it is nice to drive without the technology to test yourself," said Bin Hendi, "This is a great start to the season and sets us up perfectly for the next round in Arendal."



A close race saw Fazza 1’s Al Marri and Al Mehairbi get within touching distance of their teammates while holding off a strong challenge from Duemme - Foresti & Suardi behind them. Two podiums from the weekend saw them consolidate second place in the championship on 30 points. "We are very happy to have finished the weekend with two podiums. We got very close to Fazza 3 and pushed hard to overtake, but they always had that little bit extra. To beat them we need some magic." said Al Marri

An inspired performance by new-pairing Montavoci and Cappellini in Duemme - Foresti & Suardi saw them claim their first podium together. Moving up from fourth on the grid they briefly held second place as they traded long-laps with Fazza 1. The third place finish, Montavoci’s first podium since Portorose, Slovenia, in 2006, delighted the experienced Italian, who said: "It feels fantastic to be back on the podium after such a long time. We got very close to Fazza, which is thanks to my new driver [Cappellini] and we will look for more in the next race."



A spin on lap six of the race prevented Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Tayer and Nicola Giorgi from pushing for the podium. Their fourth placed finish was well earned and the new pairing will take heart from a good performance by both boat and team, giving them something to build on for the next race.

Fabio Magnani and Marco Pennesi in Foresti & Suardi - SCAM produced another solid performance taking fifth place in their second outing together, going two better than in race 1, to make it an eleven-point weekend.



Welmax Alianza’s Giorgio Manuzzi and Marit Stromoy claimed their second consecutive sixth place in their first grand prix outing together, however, their was frustration for teammates Jorn Tandberg and Kolbjorn Selmer, in Welmax, who were unable to build on yesterday’s podium finish after stopping on the start lap before restarting, only to see their race hopes end a lap later with a broken compressor belt.




Considered the Formula 1 of the seas, Class 1, 10 boats competed. Each one has a pilot and a throttleman, which is responsible for the acceleration and deceleration of the boat. Renowned riders from Italy, Norway, Australia, UAE, among others. These fantastic machines that reach more than 270 km and are a true proof of engineering and design. It was the first time the event came to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Finally, the Class 1 Event brought some beautiful women too!