New Zealand will ‘carry the momentum’ of New York’s triumph forward into Season 4’s $2 million, winner-takes-all Grand Final in San Francisco, driver Peter Burling has said.
The Kiwis put in a flawless performance, overcoming challenging conditions and nailing tricky maneuvers, to trounce Canada and Emirates GBR, winning the penultimate event of Season 4 in New York.
Reflecting on the win, Burling said he was ‘proud’ to ‘win by such a margin’.
“It’s awesome to get another win on the board - it was really tricky conditions, real snakes and ladders, but we managed to put together three solid races and ended up winning it,” he said.
He reflected back on a challenging season for the team, which included the collapse of New Zealand’s wing in Saint-Tropez and missing an entire event in Taranto.
“I knew we had a long road ahead of us to be top of the leaderboard heading into the Grand Final, not only the points side of thing, but also the lack of training time,” he said. “It’s been a tough season but to charge through that and get the wins on the board is something we’re super proud of.”
The refreshed season standings see New Zealand consolidate their position at the top of the leaderboard and mean the Kiwis have already qualified for next month’s Grand Final - the only team yet to do so.
However, Burling said the team would be gunning to win San Francisco’s fleet racing and enter the Grand Final on a wave of confidence.
“We’ll be trying to win San Fran for sure and it was awesome to win the last final going into that,” he said. “We’re proud of the team and going to carry that momentum forward to San Fran.”
The SailGP Season 4 Grand Final takes place on July 13/14 in San Francisco.
