Spain takes the lead in the SailGP of San Francisco

Diego Botin’s team repeated its Season 4 Championship winning performance on San Francisco waters, beating NorthStar Canada and France in a tense three-boat Final.

Despite Spain crossing the finish line first, it was France which blasted across the start line at speed, securing the all-important inside line at Mark 1. But unflappable decision making by Spain saw Diego Botin's squad split the course at Gate 2. This turned out to be the crucial move of the race and resulted in the Spanish stealing the lead from France on the third leg.

From there, the Spanish were clinical, keeping both teams at bay to sail the shortest distance and pick up a 100% fly time.

Heading into the race, driver Diego Botin predicted the start to be key, but said there were ‘some opportunities around the course’ too. “We will try and play it better than the others”, he said.

The Final followed a dramatic seventh fleet race, in which Australia suffered a dramatic wing collapse as it approached the start line. A statement issued immediately by SailGP confirmed that all athletes were accounted for and unharmed, while the cause of the incident is not yet known.

The wing collapse meant Australia, which was sitting in third place after an impressive performance all weekend, was unable to race in the three-boat Final. This meant France took the Aussies' qualifying place instead.

Speaking from the water, Australia driver Tom Slingsby described the incident as ‘heartbreaking’.

“It was a very scary situation - we’re all unharmed and ok, but when something like this happens, you just think is everyone going to get through this.”

He added that team’s priority was ensuring the boat was repaired in time to race in Rio in May.

“We’ve got to save the boat as much as we can - obviously the results and points are what they are. We’re not concerned about that, it’s just about saving the boat.”

For this season, Spain wing trimmer Florian Trittel described the team’s win as ‘bittersweet’ because ‘of the Aussie breakage’.

“We would like to send huge energy from the Spanish team to the Aussie team, we could hear it through our comms even though we had noise cancelling on, so it must have been a massive one and seeing that is never nice.”

Spain's victory followed an impressive second day of racing for the team, with 3-1-2 race results. Switzerland took the win in race one, while New Zealand topped the fleet in race three.

The refreshed season standings see Australia move into the lead with 39 points, with Emirates GBR in second with 38 and Spain in third with 36.

Next up, the fleet heads to South America for the first time for the inaugural Enel Rio Sail Grand Prix on May ¾.