Great Britain SailGP team at Marseille SailGP day 2: Disappointing results for the Brits
by Leslie Ryan 21 Sep 18:20 BST
20-22 September 2019
SailGP Team GBR skippered by Dylan Fletcher in action here close to the shore on day 2 of racing. The final SailGP event of Season 1 in Marseille, France © Lloyd Images for SailGP
An interesting day on the water where everyone was expecting super strong winds that never materialized. In fact the conditions were variable all afternoon seeing some decent gusts and then massive holes of no wind, testing conditions for all six teams.
Today was not the best day for the British team. They appeared to struggle on the starts and getting back into the action during the races - so different from the performances they had shown on previous days. A sickness bug had hit a few of the sailors overnight so perhaps that had an impact but the team ended up with their most disappointing performance on the water by far this season posting a sixth, fourth and sixth place results in the three races. That said, they still retain the third place overall position but now tied with the Chinese who managed their first race win of the season today.
All to play for tomorrow where SailGP host two final fleet races between the four teams positioned in third to sixth positions to battle it out for the overall third place podium slot before watching the battle between the Australian and Japanese teams match race for the $1m prizewinning pot.
"An incredibly tough day on the water for us today", commented Chris Draper, Great Britain team CEO and wing trimmer. "the conditions were super shifty and not what we were expecting and we were simply off the mark all day today. A couple of our guys had been hit overnight with a sickness virus and today's conditions really demanded 100% focus and quick decision making. It was just not our day which is disappointing after yesterday but we are totally focused on that 3rd place podium and will come out fighting for it tomorrow."
Fleet race one - started 1440
Not a good start for the Brits on this critical day two - they started at the back of the pack and struggled to get back into it all the way round. The wind was super shifty and they managed to get up to fourth place at one stage only to get becalmed at the end and taking their first sixth place all season. Tough way to start racing on this critical day.
Race 1 Results:
1st - Australia
2nd - Japan
3rd - China
4th - France
5th - USA
6th - Great Britain
Fleet race two - started 1513
Another 'sticky' race for our British athletes, a better start from Dylan but then they seemed to struggle to crack through into the top three and took a fourth place overall. More importantly, the Chinese took their first race win of the season and so the race for third podium overall closes up with the British team only two points ahead of the Chinese team now.
Race 2 Results:
1st - China
2nd - Australia
3rd - Japan
4th - Great Britain
5th - USA
6th - France
Fleet race three - started 1540
Initially it looked promising coming up to the start for the Brits mixing it in the pack but it was not to be and again they appeared to really struggle to be on pace for the starts today. The wind was all over the place and eventually the whole fleet parked up stationary fully waiting for wind. The British team ended the race in 6th place, probably very happy to see the end of today's racing.
Race 3 Results:
1st - Japan
2nd - Australia
3rd - France
4th - China
5th - USA
6th - Great Britain
Results after Day 2:
1st: Australia - 225 pts
2nd: Japan - 219 pts
3rd: China - 162 pts
4th: Great Britain - 162 pts (equal points to China)
5th: France - 155 pts
6th: USA - 155 pts (equal points to France)