SailGP: Blistering starts propel France within grasp of the Grand Final on the opening day in San Francisco

Quentin Delapierre’s France – which must beat Spain in this event to leapfrog into the three-boat Grand Final – converted aggressive starting strategies into impressive 1-3-3 results and finished the day at the top of the leaderboard with 26 points.

Tom Slingsby’s Australia picked up the second race win of the day, while Nicolai Sehested’s ROCKWOOL DEN triumphed in the third. Solid results from Emirates GBR see Giles Scott’s team finish the day in second with 23 points, while the Danish are in third with 22.

Conversely, Diego Botin’s Spain seemed to struggle in the strong winds of 30-40 km/h and lacked confidence in the configuration of high speed boards and smallest 18m wing.

Dreadful starts saw the team start at the back of the fleet and struggle to regain positions, finishing the day with 7-6-5 results and in 7th overall with 15 points.

This means the projected leaderboard after fleet racing places France just one point ahead of Spain and on track to take their place in the Grand Final against Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking after racing, Spain driver Diego Botin admitted the team had ‘awful starts’. “We managed to climb places after that so we were happy with that but we need to step up our game tomorrow.”

Dramatic finish for Canada

Elsewhere, there was a dramatic incident at the end of Fleet Race 2 when Canada and ROCKWOOL DEN missed the finish line. Canadian driver Phil Robertson steered into the finish mark in desperation, picking up a four point event penalty and two point season penalty.

SailGP’s Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco continues on July 14, with racing from 2.30pm PDT.