More than 10,000 fans, guests and media crowded around the Royal Netherlands Air Force base, Volkel, in the south of Holland, to catch a glimpse of the thrilling race between the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team F8-VII and an RNLAF F16 fighter plane. The event, named ‘Full Throttle’, saw Dutch driver Christijan Albers race his Formula 1 challenger side by side against Captain Ralph Aarts’ state of the art combat plane down the base’s main runway.
Christijan looked to have the advantage over the first 300m as he accelerated away from the line, but over the final 700m the F16 just pulled ahead to win the tight race by only two car lengths. Reaching a speed of 450kph by the end of the straight, the F16 completed the course in just 15.5secs. Following his narrow victory, Ralph performed a spectacular flying display over the air base.
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