Rockwool Italy Sail Grand Prix: Emirates GBR triumphs in Italy

Emirates GBR has picked up its second consecutive event win after Taranto’s three-boat Final against Australia and the United States was terminated due to light winds.

The three top teams were unable to reach the third gate in the 16 minute race time limit - with winds dropping to just 7 km/h - resulting in the termination of the Final.

This meant the top team from the fifth fleet race - Emirates GBR - picked up the overall event win, while Australia and the United States finished in second and third respectively.

Despite this, Emirates GBR was the highest performing team all weekend - never finishing below 3rd throughout all five fleet races.

Speaking about the win, Emirates GBR driver Ben Ainslie said: “The team did a great job all weekend - certainly we were lucky in that last race.”

He added that the team ‘picked up a puff’ just as ‘they terminated the race’, which might have ‘given us a shot of getting back into it’. “But the consistency the team has shown all weekend,” he said.

Race Day 2 was in direct contrast to the high-octane racing of Taranto’s opening day, with teams hunting wind gusts and struggling to get onto the foils.

But Emirates GBR repeated its impressive opening day performance, picking up a race win and second place finish in the final two fleet races.

A key story of the day however was the comeback of Jimmy Spithill’s United States team, which bounced back from an athlete injury on day one to pick up a 3rd and 1st place finish in fleet racing.

The third place in the Final was set to go to France, but when Canada pipped Quentin Delapierre’s team to the finish line in Fleet Race 5, it went to the U.S. instead.
 
Despite not being able to complete the Final, Spithill’s team finished 3rd overall - the team’s best result since Sydney in Season 3.

Elsewhere, Spain proved itself as a light wind specialist, picking up 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the last two fleet races - a comeback from its 8-8-7 record on Race Day 1.

SailGP fans don’t have long to wait until the F50 fleet meet again - the Spain Sail Grand Prix | Andalucía Cádiz takes place on October 14-15.