Matthias Dolderer won qualifying in Kazan today for tomorrow's Red Bull Air Race World Championships fifth leg ©Red Bull

Watched by more than 55,000 spectators in Kazan, Germany's Matthias Dolderer raced into contention for victory at tomorrow's Red Bull Air Race World Championships event by finishing first in qualifying.

His success in the Russian city came as early pacesetter and overall leader Matt Hall dropped to ninth.

As the field prepares for tomorrow's finale in the fifth of the eight scheduled stops in this year's Championships, Michael Goulian of the United States, currently two points behind Australia's Hall on 43, looks well placed to move into overall control having finished second behind the resurgent German today.

Spain's Juan Valerde, who posted the second fastest free practice time behind Hall yesterday, finished third in qualifying in front of Britain's Ben Murphy, competing in only his fifth Master Class race.

Dolderer, who beat Hall to the world title in 2016, set a time of 52.615sec.

Hall, who had set the track record twice the day before, was unable to dominate and his time of 54.009 left him 1.394 behind Dolderer.

Goulian's first run in qualifying was only 54.699, but the American refocused and on his second run was able to shave close to two seconds off, enabling him to finish just 0.205 behind the German pilot.

Defending world champion Yoshihide Muroya of Japan was fifth with a time of 53.351 and Frenchman Mika Brageot was behind him in sixth.

Brageot's placement will now see him go up against Hall, who said: "I think the track was a little bit different, I didn't hit the same lines as I was looking for.

"We'll go back and have a look at our data.

"I'm not too concerned, it's just qualifying and we've been doing pretty well for the last two days."

Martin Sonka, who won the last race in Budapest, also struggled, finishing in 12th place.

A Red Bull Air Race pilot typically navigates a multi-kilometres racetrack of 25-metres-high "pylons" in under a minute, taking in chicanes, high-G force turns and a range of potential penalties.

Winning requires split-second reactions while flying at 370 kilometres-per-hour and bearing G-loads equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms.

Tomorrow will see the Master Class pilots going head-to-head in a round of 14, which will be followed by a round of eight and then a final involving the top four.