SAINT TROPEZ, France – Ben Ainslie’s Team GB ended a two-and-a-half-year drought to win the France SailGP on Sunday, and vault up to fourth place in the championship.
A capacity crowd on the Saint Tropez shoreline saw Ainslie’s team beat reigning champions Australia and Diego Botin’s in-form Spaniards to triumph for the first time since the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix in Season 2.
“It’s been a long time coming but it was great to be in one of those all-time classic finals with the Aussies, who are the great champion team,” Ainslie said.
“The team did a brilliant job all through the weekend and I feel like we made some big gains after a frustrating period for us not quite getting the results.
“Now we’ve got some momentum behind us so it was a great team effort,” the four-times Olympic gold medallist said.
Despite having yet to win in Season 4, Australia remain top of the championship standings.
Their skipper Tom Slingsby said: “When I look back at my career and these tight races with Ben Ainslie, I think I’ll look back at today pretty fondly, but I still would have loved to get the upper hand. The fact they hadn’t won so long is unbelievable really, hats off to them, they saw the opportunity and took it.”
Spain are second in the season standings after an excellent start to Season 4.
“We still lack technique here and there but overall we are doing the important things well,” captain Botin said.
The European leg of Season 4 of SailGP continues in two weeks with the Italy race in Taranto on Sept. 23 and 24.
Standings after three events:
(Reporting by Ossian Shine; Editing by Toby Davis)
