Denmark SailGP Team presented by ROCKWOOL ended Race Day 1 at the France Sail Grand Prix in Saint-Tropez with a second-placed finish, to keep them in the hunt for the final three spots on the French Riviera.
The Danes started slowly in Saint-Tropez bay, finishing sixth in Race 1 and seventh in Race 2, as puffy and shifty light winds challenged the fleet, which raced with just three crew onboard rather than the usual five.
But it was in the final action of Saturday that Nicolai Sehested’s crew managed to pull off a podium performance to keep up their hopes of making their first final of the season.
Sehested said: “We started poorly and got better throughout the day, but we can’t afford to spend two races finding our groove. We need to go and debrief and look into why we weren’t sailing that well – it was very tricky conditions and a difficult race course, but that’s the same for everyone. As a new team, we’re still learning all the time.”
He added: “Tomorrow is a new day. It’s still very close on points, so if we have two good races tomorrow, everything is still to play for. We survived today, we didn’t lose the regatta, but we didn’t win it either.”
In the third race of the day, the Danish boat started well and broke away from the fleet in the early stages of the race, only for United States SailGP Team – driven by Jimmy Spithill – to hunt them down with just a leg to the finish.
The action in St Tropez marks Denmark SailGP Team’s first time back on the water since its landmark homecoming event – the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix in Aarhus, a first ever SailGP stop in Denmark – in which the team took its first race victory since joining the league ahead of Season 2.
To follow the rest of the France Sail Grand Prix action, Danish fans can tune into TV2 Sport from 13.15 on Sunday. Fans outside Denmark can head to sailgp.com/watch to find out how to follow the racing in their market.
Overall Scoreboard after Race Day 1 at France Sail Grand Prix
- United States SailGP Team – 20 points
- New Zealand SailGP Team – 17 points
- Spain SailGP Team – 16 points
- Japan SailGP Team – 16 points
- Great Britain SailGP Team – 13 points
- Denmark SailGP Team presented by ROCKWOOL – 12 points
- France SailGP Team – 7 points
- Australia SailGP Team – 7 points
