Ahead of Season 4’s visit to Saint-Tropez, we recap all the racing action from Season 3’s event in the city, which saw gusts of over 40 km/h sweep the Côte d’Azur.
The crazy conditions resulted in Quentin Delapierre’s home French team setting a new SailGP speed racing record, hitting 99.94 km/h on a day when every single team surpassed 90 km/h.
The first day of racing also saw Peter Burling’s New Zealand execute a bold maneuver on the finish line of the first fleet race, forcing the Aussies to crash off the foils while traveling at more than 90 km/h.
This saw the Aussies sustain serious damage to their F50 just meters from the finish line and provoked an angry outburst from driver Tom Slingsby as the Kiwis swept ahead to secure first place.
But the Flying Roos battled back in the second fleet race, with Slingsby’s crew crossing the finish line in first place despite the damage. The Kiwis won the third race and finished the first day of racing at the top of the leaderboard.
The second day of racing however featured light wind conditions, which drastically contrasted with the crazy conditions of the day before.
Jimmy Spithill’s United States, which had been performing well all weekend, picked up its first and only win of the season after defeating New Zealand and Emirates GBR in the three-boat, winner-takes-all Final.
Despite the win however, an incident with France during racing saw the U.S. penalized four points from their season total - meaning their win didn’t affect their overall Championship ranking at all.
This season, the increased 10-strong F50 fleet will go to battle in front of packed, shoreside fans when racing gets underway on September 9 & 10.
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