SailGP
Los Gallos and the Bonds Flying Roos emerged as the teams to beat on a dramatic opening day of the Spain Sail Grand Prix | Valencia, with starts proving more important than ever in the tricky, lighter conditions.
Every race winner on Saturday led at mark one, underlining just how difficult it was for teams to recover once they had lost the early battle for clean air.
Spain’s Los Gallos came into their home event riding a wave of success and promising a show for the thousands of fans packing the Race Stadium – and they delivered in spades.
Diego Botin and his crew nailed the start of Race 1B and immediately established a commanding lead, with the United States and DS Team France left battling behind. Flawless sailing from Los Gallos gave them a commanding victory as they opened their campaign for home glory in style.
“It’s very special to open the event like this – the crowd loved it,” Botin said. “But there are plenty more races still to come and we need to stay focused.”
Danish team ROCKWOOL Racing recovered brilliantly to finish second, while the United States took third.
Los Gallos repeated the trick in Race 2B, again winning the start and initially controlling the race. A rare board-drop mistake saw the Spanish F50 fall off the foils and allowed ROCKWOOL to briefly snatch the lead, but Botin’s crew recovered and found a final puff of breeze to edge back ahead by mere centimetres.
The Danes would have their revenge in Race 3B, taking a comfortable victory to finish the day second in Group B on 12 points, behind Los Gallos on 14. The United States completed a remarkably consistent day with three podium finishes.
Over in Group A, Red Bull Italy announced themselves as serious contenders while Aussie outfit the Bonds Flying Roos picked up where they left off having won the previous event in Sassnitz, Germany.
Phil Robertson’s Italians won Race 1A after a blistering start, holding off the Bonds Flying Roos to claim their first victory of the day. The Aussies responded in Race 2A, with Tom Slingsby celebrating his 42nd birthday by taking the win after another perfectly judged start.
“We got a good start, and in these light conditions if you get a good start you’re out in clean air,” Slingsby said.
But Red Bull Italy had the final word, storming to another win in Race 3A to finish second in Group A on 10 points, just one behind the Flying Roos on 11.
Explora Swiss took second in the final race, while Artemis salvaged third after being forced to miss the opening race when a broken part of their jib couldn’t be repaired in time.
The top two from each group at the end of fleet racing advance to Sunday’s Final – and with two more fleet races per group remaining, the Bonds Flying Roos, Red Bull Italy, Los Gallos and ROCKWOOL Racing have the upper hand.
Racing resumes at 1330 local time – 1130 UTC – on Sunday, and the lesson from the opening day was clear: get the start right, and the road to victory suddenly looks a whole lot shorter.