Hall and Goulian entered the fourth leg of the series tied at 36 points, and in the end it was a “schoolboy error” – in the words of the broadcaster commentators – that separated the two pilots.

In the lead up to the Hungary stage of the competition Hall had spoken about focusing on his own flying, but the Australian ace admitted he made time to “hear [Goulian’s] time and his time only”.

“Today was Goulian’s fourth time in a row in the Final 4, that’s good consistency,” Hall said. 

“I was trying not to let world championship tactics get in the way of my flying today, but I heard his [Goulian’s] time. In this track there is a high risk of DQ’ing due to exceeding the G-Force limit, so I decided to be a little more conservative to beat him and not really care too much about the other guys.

“That might turn out to be a mistake with Šonka (who took out the top spot in the fourth leg) later in the year, but at least it pushes Mikey down below me by a couple of points.”

Hall also revealed he may have “pushed the envelope” slightly as he soared towards his third place finish, breaking his self-set limit of 11.5Gs. The Aussie hit 11.7Gs during the Round of 14, just 0.3GS of a disqualification speed.

In an attempt to avoid the disqualification, Hall set himself a slower speed in the second round as he flew against France’s Nicolas Ivanoff, and aimed for a 10.5G limit, but Merewether’s flying ace blew past that to clock 11.2Gs over the Danube.

“It was very hard to control the G at these high speeds,” he admitted. “I backed right off in the last flight and didn’t try to win the race, for fear of over-G. 

“I went out in the first stage, the Round of 14, and had to push very hard and I set myself a limit of 11.5G’s and hit 11.7Gs. So that was really close to 12Gs and a DQ there,” Hall explained. 

“Pete (Hall’s tactician Peter Wezenbeek) and I talked about whether I would go for the win or not, and the decision was to go for the win because Mike was into the Final 4. We had to beat him.

“At that point, before I took off for the last flight, it was worth risking a penalty. But as I said, when I heard his time I knew it then became important to simply finish ahead of him.”

Hall now has an eight week break in the schedule as the Air Race series reaches its halfway point. The series will resume in Kazan, once the 2018 FIFA World Cup has departed Russian shores.

Hall is expected back in Australia this evening.

STANDINGS: Hall (45), Goulian (43), Sonka (34), Brageot (27), Muroya* (19), Dolderer, Le Vot (15), McLeod (11), Chambliss (10), Velarde, Murphy (9), Kopfstein (8), Bolton (6), Ivanoff (5). *defending champion.