Season 2 of SailGP now moves to Cadiz-Andalusia, Spain for racing on October 9 and 10; Japan lead the standings followed closely by the teams from the United States, Australia and Great Britain
Monday 13 September 2021 12:54, UK
Nathan Outteridge and his Japanese SailGP team secured victory in Saint-Tropez on Sunday and now top the standings after five events of Season 2.
The outfit, led by the helmsman who is nicknamed 'the wind whisperer', secured victory on the final day of racing and showed great aptitude with the newly fitted 29-meter wingsail.
Victory in the winner-takes-all, three-boat final - with Jimmy Spithill's USA team taking second and Spain third - marks the Japanese team's second event win of the season.
"We are very happy with another win on the scoreboard and it's always good to be in the event final," Outteridge said, following their victory. "At the end of the day, it's practice for the real one at the end of the season, which really matters, with the million dollars at stake.
"It was pretty tricky out there. Jimmy [Spithill] did a great job at the start of that last race, but once again we managed to sneak past him.
"Last time in Taranto it was bad luck for Jimmy whereas with the win this time, that top mark decision was either left or right. It was still quite stressful from then until the finish, because you never knew what was going to come.
"I think we have done a little bit more training with these 29 meter wings [than the other teams] but not myself personally, I had maybe an hour in Aarhus after that event.
"Chris [Draper] had done three days before that, so we knew what we were in for in terms of it being bigger and heavier. Yes, you can generate more power, but getting foiling wasn't really any easier.
The result propels the Japanese team to the top of the overall leaderboard and it means that they overtake Tom Slingsby's Australian team, who had a tough weekend in France and finished the event in last position.
"We are very happy to be leading overall now, I think we've had a bit of an up and down season so far, but that's two podium finishes for us now and a couple of points lead overall," Outteridge added.
"We really want to finish off the European season in a strong position, so I guess the goal again is to be in the top three at the next event in Cadiz, Spain."
Spithill and his USA outfit topped the event rankings heading into the three-boat podium race in Saint-Tropez, however they weren't quite able to get over the line in the final.
"It was a great race and a great event for our team," Spithill said. "It was dynamic, lots of minefields on the racecourse and we have to give credit to Japan for sailing a good race.
"I think in those conditions you know you've got to sail with the wind you've got. You need a few things to go your way, but again overall, I think Japan is sailing well in those sorts of conditions compared to the fleet.
"It seems to be if it gets light and shifty, up and down, they seem to have a little edge on the fleet, so you have to give them credit.
"Overall, as a team, I was very impressed with our guys, especially with changes in the roster and CJ [Paul Campbell-James] back after injury, so to walk away with a second is a good result.
"We continue our climb up the leaderboard. This is our first event where we did not have an incident on the water involving someone breaking a bone, hitting an object or sinking, and we've still got some time.
"We've got another couple of events so we've just got to keep chipping away and putting the results on the board and we will be in the running for the million bucks."
For Great Britain, led by Sir Ben Ainslie, a penalty in Race Five cost them the position that they wanted, and ultimately a chance to be part of the podium race.
"We had a reasonable first race [on day two] which set us up with a good shot of getting into the top three, but we needed to push in the second race," he said. "We had a gap and went for it but unfortunately, it closed up right at the last moment between Spain and Denmark and we couldn't quite feed the boat through.
"We had a collision with Spain and rightly got the penalty for that. That cost us the race and the shot at getting at the top three.
"That said, I think we've learned a lot from this event, sailing the boat in these conditions and using the new 29 meter wing, which was a great success.
"Whilst we are frustrated about that final race there are many positives to take away going into Cadiz with the championship getting tighter and tighter at the top. It's very close on the overall leaderboard which is super exciting."
As Ainslie mentioned, the SailGP season now moves to Cadiz-Andalusia, Spain for two days of racing on October 9 and 10.
Every race will be live on Sky Sports and event will complete SailGP's European leg, before all of the teams take a break prior to the next event, which is scheduled for December.
