SAILGP – 5 MOMENTS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED FROM SYDNEY

SAILGP  SYDNEY

From the United States’ pre-race capsize to the impressive return of Quentin Delapierre’s France, we round up five moments you might have missed from Sydney.

Vuelco en EE.UU.

Sydney was a disastrous event for the United States team, which capsized on the way to practice racing. The incident caused damage to the team’s wingsail and ruled them out of racing all weekend, leaving them with a 0 point score. Speaking about the incident, team CEO Mike Buckley said: “We now look towards LA and San Francisco as our opportunity to get back out on the water and make up for lost points this weekend. We’re excited to race at home and see all the U.S. flags out in the crowd supporting our team.”

Germany Deutsche Bank x Mubadala Brazil practice race drama

When practice racing did get underway, there was plenty of drama. Germany was deducted a devastating 12 season points for three separate incidents; hitting Mubadala Brazil, hitting Red Bull Italy and damaging its wingsail when returning to the Tech Site after racing. Germany wasn’t the only team to lose points; Mubadala Brazil also lost points for the incident with Erik Heil’s team; a total of 8 event points and 4 season points.

France’s impressive return

France finally returned to the race track in Sydney after a two event hiatus during which the team awaited delivery of a new F50. France, which finished the event overall in 6th place, performed particularly well on the first day of racing, converting blistering starts into 4-3-8-2 finishes. The team’s performance fell away on day two, with 6-9-8 finishes in the last three fleet races, but it made an impressive return nevertheless for Quentin Delapierre’s crew.

New Zealand’s disappointing performance

It was the opposite story for Peter Burling’s New Zealand, which seemed to experience technical issues on the first day of the event and wallowed at the back of the fleet. The team picked up uncharacteristically disappointing results on day one; 8-7-11-11, but battled back on day two with 2-1-5 results to finish the overall event in 8th.

Emirates GBR’s first event win with driver Dylan Fletcher

Sydney hosted a stunning victory for Emirates GBR, which is enjoying a run of impressive performance since Dylan Fletcher returned to the driving seat. The team spectacularly beat home favorites Australia and NorthStar Canada on Sydney Harbour to cement itself at the top of the season leaderboard. It marks the third top three finish for the team since the new season began.