With a four-race calendar this year, the event in the Russian city marked the midpoint of the season.

Muroya's win, which came in a time of 1min 03.496sec, sees him become only the second pilot to have won the first two races in a World Championship campaign, following in the footsteps of the three-time titleholder Paul Bonhomme of Great Britain.

He now sits on 53 points in the overall standings to give him a nine-point advantage over the second-placed Czech Martin Šonka, the defending world champion who finished third today in 1:04.238.

Third place is now occupied by Australia's Matt Hall, today's runner-up in 1:03.681, with 36 points.

Occasional rain and changeable winds made for challenging conditions at the 92nd Red Bull Air Race.

But the sun emerged for the final four and it was Muroya, the 2017 world champion, who came out on top after flying first.

"We had a really good feeling from the beginning here," the 46-year-old said.

"Today the wind had shifted, so it was very difficult to find the right line, but my tactician Ben helped me."

He added: "The team is working really well.

"Everybody is working hard and I can be relaxed, so I can just fly like a robot.

"The plane is really fast and I simply do my job."

France's François Le Vot, who reached his first final four since 2016, was plagued by penalties and just missed out on the top three with a time of 1:08.524.

Germany's Matthias Dolderer, the 2016 world champion, did not race in Kazan after a pylon hit in qualifying saw his plane damaged and it was unable to be repaired in time for race day.

The weekend-long event attracted a total of 80,000 fans.

The 2019 Red Bull Air Race World Championship season is due to resume on July 13 and 14 when the Hungarian town of Zamárdi plays host to the penultimate event on the shores of Lake Balaton.

"Today we were so close together on the time-sheet and the points are still close in the standings, so I can't relax for the next race," Muroya said.

"Of course I will go for the win in Lake Balaton."