Pete McLeod was 3rd in the opening training session and 4th quickest in the second session. (Photo-Sebastian Marko/Red Bull Content Pool)

Britain's Paul Bonhomme bounces back from disappointing fifth place in the last race in Malaysia with a sterling effort in Friday's training sessions ahead of the first Red Bull Air Race ever held in Poland

Gdynia, Poland – Defending champion Paul Bonhomme of Britain was on top of the time sheets in training on Friday ahead of the Red Bull Air Race Qualifying session on Saturday in the pulsating Polish Baltic shore city of Gdynia, edging past compatriot Nigel Lamb in second under brilliant blue skies and a large crowd of spectators. Martin Sonka of the neighboring Czech Republic was a surprisingly strong third on a warm summer afternoon.

Bonhomme, who is second in the 2014 championship behind Austria's Hannes Arch, mastered an extremely difficult 270-degree turn halfway through the track that has been set up on the choppy waters of the Baltic Sea just off the beaches of Gdynia that was made even more challenging by 14-knot headwinds. Bonhomme stopped the clock with a time of 1:11.354 seconds while Lamb was less than the blink of eye behind in second place with a time of 1:11.385 and Sonka took third with 1:11.703.

"It's a really lively track but interesting track and a lot of fun to fly," said Bonhomme, who added he especially enjoyed the tight 270-degree turn that he and other pilots called the most difficult turn anywhere so far this season. "I think it's good to have a turn like that. It's what we've been asking for. It makes it a pilot's track rather than just relying on engines and airplanes. If you make the track really tricky and interesting, it brings it down to the pilots' skill."

The 12 Red Bull Air Race pilots had to complete the tough 270-degree turn – with a radius of just 168 meters – by flying through three Air Gates and keeping their wings level through the first and final gates. Many of the pilots struggled on the turn and clipped the final gate, sending the Air Gate bursting apart.

Arch, who leads the championship with 30 points to Bonhomme's 25 points, experimented with his lines in Friday's first and second training sessions and was fifth overall with a time of 1:12.376 seconds with Canada's Pete McLeod just ahead of him in fourth with a time of 1:12.276.