Ben Ainslie and the British team wasted no time establishing themselves as the ones to beat this season as they put on impressive performances throughout Sydney SailGP to claim their first event title.
In the first match race of SailGP Season 2, Great Britain and Australia faced off and the British four-time Olympic gold medallist, whose crew included Australians Iain Jensen and Luke Parkinson, capped off his debut in style against the Australian Olympic gold medallist and America’s Cup winning defending champion.
Hundreds of spectators crowded Sydney Harbour over two days to watch the world’s fastest sail racing and see hometown hero Tom Slingsby attempt to fend off Ainslie's challenge.
The match race, which ended the series, closely reflected the racing throughout the entire event, as the British team got out to an early lead and was the fastest boat on Sydney Harbour. Slingsby and the Australians found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early and were unable to pull back.
The victory marked Great Britain’s first event win in the global event.
Ainslie said: “It’s certainly been one of the best sailing events I’ve ever taken part in. Incredible conditions on Sydney Harbor, it doesn’t really get any better than that. It’s been magical.”
After the first event of Season 2, Great Britain sits atop the leaderboard with 47 points, followed by Australia with 42, Japan with 39, Spain with 31, the United States at 31 and Denmark with 22, while France rounds out the standings with 14 points.
In the first fleet race of the day, the Brits picked up where they left off on Friday, notching a fourth-consecutive win, while the Australian and the Nathan Outteridge skippered Japanese teams placed second and third.
Olympic champions Slingsby and Outteridge battled back-and-forth all of Season 1 and it was only fitting that the pair went into race five with a spot in the match race on the line.
Australia jumped out to an early lead that it never relinquished, with Slingsby guiding the defending champion to its first win of the event, setting up a showdown with Ainslie. While they were unable to reclaim the event title, the Australians showed notable improvement on the second day of racing.
Slingsby said: “We seem to usually go better on our final day. It was nice today to perform when the pressure was on; we knew we had to beat Japan.
“It was all going well until the last race, where we made a big mistake at the start.”
Japan featured in every match race last season and will look to fight its way into the top-two at the next event in San Francisco.
It was an impressive debut performance for the young Spanish team and their Kiwi helmsman Phil Robertson. They earned three second-places over the course of the event and established themselves as possible podium contenders for Season 2.
Fellow newcomer in 2020 – the Denmark SailGP Team presented by Rockwool – finished sixth, but showed flashes of high-level ability throughout the two days of competition. After sustaining damage to its boat and having to retire from two races on the first day, Billy Besson’s French team finished seventh.
Rome Kirby and the United States team finished fifth and will look to gain ground on the leaderboard when the global championship returns to San Francisco Bay on May 2-3.
At the first U.S event of Season 2, all seven boats will be boosted by the addition of a first-of-its-kind modular wingsail that could allow the F50s to fly at record-breaking speeds.
SailGP Season 2 Overall Leaderboard
1 Great Britain 47 pts
2 Australia 42 pts
3 Japan 39 pts
4 Spain 31 pts *9 points deducted from total score
5 United States 31 pts
6 Denmark 22 pts *2 points deducted from total score
7 France 14 pts
Individual Sydney SailGP Race Results
Match Race
1 Great Britain
2 Australia
Race 5
1 Australia 10 pts
2 Spain 9 pts
3 Japan 8 pts
4 Great Britain 7 pts
5 United States 6 pts
6 Denmark 5 pts
7 France 4 pts
Race 4
1 Great Britain 10 pts
2 Australia 9 pts
3 Japan 8 pts
4 Spain 7 pts
5 United States 6 pts
6 France 5 pts
7 Denmark 4 pts
Race 3
1 Great Britain 10 pts
2 Spain 9 pts
3 Japan 8 pts
4 United States 7 pts
5 Australia 6 pts
6 Denmark 5 pts
7 France 0 pts *DNS
Race 2
1 Great Britain 10 pts
2 Spain 9 pts
3 Australia 8 pts
4 Japan 7 pts
5 Denmark 6 pts
6 United States 5 pts
7 France 0 pts *DNS
Race 1
1 Great Britain 10 pts
2 Australia 9 pts
3 Japan 8 pts
4 United States 7 pts
5 Spain 6 pts
6 France 5 pts
7 Denmark 4 pts
