The Great Britain SailGP Team finished the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix in third place in very light, marginal foiling conditions on the final day resulting in ‘tortoise and hare’ racing, with those able to find any breeze being rewarded handsomely.

After finishing the opening two fleet races of the day in fourth and second respectively, the British team qualified for the final ‘winner-takes-all’ race in first place on the leaderboard, alongside Nathan Outteridge’s Japan SailGP Team and Tom Slingsby’s Australia SailGP Team.

Ultimately, it was the Australians who took the final race win, and with it the Grand Prix, in a final podium race that will be remembered for a penalty call against the British team for being judged to have not given the Japanese enough room at the third mark, which forced the British to give up the chase on the Slingsby’s crew, and let the Japanese past into second place.

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Great Britain SailGP Team helmed by Ben Ainslie in action on Race Day 1 at Denmark SailGP, Event 4, Season 2 in Aarhus, Denmark 20 August 2021. Photo: Ian Roman for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP

“That last race was a bit of a shocker. We didn’t have a great start, the Aussies sailed well to be fair. We managed to sail past the Japanese and then the umpires came up with one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen. I normally don’t moan too much about umpire calls but that was just shocking. That call ruined the race for us and probably for the spectators as well. In the end they are there to do a job, it’s not easy for them, and you’ve just to go with the rub of the green, take it on the chin, and come back fighting for the next one.”

CEO & Driver, Ben Ainslie

Big umpire call in the Podium Race

A third-place finish in the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix leaves Ben Ainslie and his British crew in second place in the overall SailGP Championship leaderboard, two points behind Slinsgby’s Australia SailGP Team. SailGP will resume next month in the France Sail Grand Prix in St. Tropez from 11-12 September.

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