Tom Slingsby took Australia to a well-deserved Auckland victory in the Final between three of the league’s most dominant teams – Australia, Spain and Emirates GBR.
The Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team secured its second consecutive podium finish of the 2025 Season. A third place overall finish for Dylan Fletecher moved the British team to the top of the 2025 Season Leaderboard after two events.
Peter Burling and New Zealand failed to make the final in Auckland, finishing fourth overall and sit second on the Season Leaderboard, while Australia are now third.
Aussie helm Tom Slingsby said of their Auckland Final victory . . . “This win means so much to us – the team set us up so well.”
“We had an amazing last race. It felt like we were fighting the British on the first leg, then the Spanish caught us on the final, upwind leg. They [Spain] had chosen to sort of concede and take a second, but they went for it and went for the win but we managed to just get around them.”
The impressive start to the 2025 Season means Emirates GBR is now top of the overall season leaderboard.
After finishing second, sixth and fourth in the day 2 fleet races, Emirates GBR secured a place in the three-boat Final Podium race.
All eyes shifted to the final showdown between the Brits, Australia and Spain, in front of sold-out Kiwi crowd, with 8,000 spectators filling the grandstands.
The three F50 race boats hit the line within seconds of each other.
Emirates GBR’s Fletcher went for an aggressive push to the first mark and it paid off briefly, until the team fell off the foils in the first manoeuvre – giving Australia and Spain a large advantage.
Despite the British team’s best efforts to gain some yards, their opponents were too far ahead.
The final race ended with Australia taking the win, followed by Season 4 champions Spain in second and Emirates GBR in third.
Although Emirates GBR was unable to secure victory, it was the team’s second podium finish in as many events, after finishing second at the Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix in November.
ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Auckland 18-19 Jan – Final
1 // Australia 10 points
2 // Spain 9 points
3 // Emirates Great Britain 8 points
4 // New Zealand 7 points
5 // ROCKWOOL Denmark 6 points
6 // Red Bull Italy 5 points
7 // Switzerland 4 points
8 // Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank 3 points
9 // Mubadala Brazil 2 points
10 // Canada 1 point
11 // USA 0 season points accrued for 11th
