Blistering starts put Australia to the top of the fleet on the first day of racing in Sydney, with Tom Slingsby dominating on home waters.
Slingsby’s team picked up a 3-2-1-1 race record, ending the day with back-to-back wins and 37 points.
This put the Aussies five points clear of Dylan Fletcher’s Emirates GBR in second place, who also enjoyed impressive results with 5-1-3-3 and 32 points.
Quentin Delapierre’s France returned to the racetrack after missing the first two events of the season. They finished the day in third with a consistent 4-3-8-2 race record on 27 points.
Sebastien Schneiter’s Switzerland had an improved showing, finishing the day in 4th overall, with 1-2-6-9 race results on 26 points.
It was another disappointing performance for Peter Burling’s New Zealand, which finished the day 9th overall with 8-7-11-11 results. The team seemed to experience technical difficulties in the last race of the day, with grinder Louis Sinclair seen hanging off the back of the F50 in an attempt to fix the problem.
The Aussies’ dominating performance led to the team topping the day’s key racing metrics, recording the highest speed of the day – 50.3 knots, 57.8 mph (93.06 km/h) the shortest distance raced – 6.95 km, and the top flight time – 78.44%.
The KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney continues Sunday 9 February with racing from 04:00 UK (15:00hrs AEDT)
There will be further racing on Sunday to determine the top three teams that will compete in the last race – a winner-takes-all Final race to crown the 2025 Australia Sail Grand Prix event champion.
Only eleven teams raced, the United States did not race after sustaining damage in practice racing.
