SailGP Day 1: Tight race for third Grand Final spot in San Francisco
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 14 Jul 00:16 UTC 14 July 2024
Spain dropped 6pts on Race Day 1 - SailGP Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco, USA. July 13, 2024 © Jed Jacobsohn/SailGP
France SailGP team led by Quentin Delapierre turned in an impressive performance on the opening day of SailGP San Francisco, edge ahead of rival Spain SailGP by just a 1pt margin on the overnight leaderboard, after the first day of racing.
New Zealand and Australia, the top two teams overall on Season Points going into the final weekend, both kept their noses clean in the 15-20kt winds blowing from the usual direction through the Golden Gate.
The French team, who are also one of the six challengers for the 2024 America's Cup, topped the overnight leaderboard with an impressive and consistent performance never finishing worse than 3rd place in the three races sailed, and lead the day by 3pts from the Emirates Great Britain and Rockwool Denmark.
In one day the French have wiped out the six point lead enjoyed by Spain SailGP the third placed team on combined Season 4 Points. The Spanish team led by Diego Botin, were incredulous to hear, after the finish of Race 3, that they had dropped out of the bracket of three teams, who will go on to contest the $2million winner takes all prize that will will be sailed as the sixth and final race on Sunday afternoon.
