Emirates Great Britain secure back to back wins for the European leg of SailGP

 

After a weekend of two halves, Ben Ainslie's Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team has secured back to back wins, adding the ROCKWOOL Italy Sail Grand Prix title to his France Sail Grand Prix win from two weeks ago in Saint-Tropez. Tom Slingsby's Australia and Jimmy Spithill's USA finished in second and third respectively with Slingsby holding onto the overall lead despite an event win alluding him so far this season.

The racing in Taranto saw two ends of the spectrum with Saturday's racing taking place in windy and wild conditions and Sunday's in light winds that eventually would disappear and cause the final podium race to be terminated.

The race for the final was hotly contested and after some of the fleet failed to make the time limit in race five it was Great Britain, Australia and United States that made the cut. 

At the prize winning ceremony, Ainslie gave Emirates GBR's strategist Hannah Mills credit for the team's win - due to her excellent ability to spot the best conditions to get the boat to the front of the fleet - and it was Mills that proudly lifted the winners trophy aloft.

Mills said: "Considering how challenging it was I think we were literally at zero knots for quite a lot of the race and it was so intense. We just kept calm and always felt like there was going to be an opportunity to get back into the race - and there was. But we ran out of time, so it was a tough race."

ROCKWOOL ITALY SAIL GRAND PRIX | TARANTO FINAL STANDINGS

1 // Emirates GBR // 10 points

2 // Australia // 9 points

3 // United States // 8 points

4 // France // 7 points

5 // Canada // 6 points

6 // Spain // 5 points

7 // Denmark // 4 points

8 // Switzerland // 3 points*

9 // Germany // 2 points

SAILGP SEASON 4 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (after four events) //

1 // Australia // 35 points

2 // Emirates GBR // 29 points

3 // Spain // 29 points

4 // Denmark // 27 points

5 // New Zealand // 23 points*

6 // United States // 22 points

7 // France // 20 points

8 // Canada // 18 points*

9 // Switzerland // 10 points

10 // Germany // 6 points*