Quentin Delapierre’s team picked up a 4-1-1 race record in light wind conditions, with teams competing with the largest 29m wing and just four crew members on board. France finished the day with two back-to-back wins and topped the leaderboard at the end of practice racing on Mina Zayed.

Taylor Canfield’s United States was close behind, finishing the day in impressive second place despite Abu Dhabi marking only the second showing for Canfield and his revamped U.S. team.

Erik Heil’s Germany meanwhile finished the day in third overall - their best result yet - with a race record of 6-4-2.

Meanwhile, Giles Scott had a perfect start to his tenure as Emirates GBR driver, picking up a win in the first race of the day. The British crew executed a perfect start to lead at Mark 1 to build a dominating lead.

It was a tricky first day behind the wheel of ROCKWOOL DEN for Nathan Outteridge however, with the Danish team finishing in 8th overall. Tom Slingsby also had a bumpy return to the Flying Roo, ending the day with an uncharacteristically poor 8-8-9 results card and 10th place finish overall.

Official racing kicks off tomorrow from 2pm-3.30pm GST, with the first three fleet races taking place on Saturday before the remaining two fleet races and three-boat, winner-takes-all, Final on Sunday.