ROCKWOOL Racing set pace on first day at SailGP championship as top seeds falter

ROCKWOOL Racing, Mubadala Brazil and Red Bull Italy top the event leaderboard after the first four fleet races of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final, presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council.

It was a disappointing day for the championship’s front-runners — but not enough to disrupt the odds of Sunday’s Grand Final.

Emirates GBR, Australia and Spain end the day on the Arabian Gulf in 10th, 11th and 12th place, respectively. Second on the overall season standings, Peter Burling’s Black Foils fared slightly better, in eighth.

All teams adopted the fleet’s new 27.5 meter wingsail for the first time, alongside light-air foils and rudders to make the most of the 7-10 km/h breeze.

Even the most experienced crews struggled in crowded conditions on one of the tightest racetracks on the calendar. Tom Slingsby’s BONDS Flying Roos and Diego Botin’s Los Gallos both received two penalties each for on-course side (early start). A total of 27 penalties were handed down across the day by SailGP umpires, including a costly penalty to the Swiss (8 points) for causing damage to the New Zealand F50 in fleet race four.

Slingsby said, “We received two early start penalties today - it’s frustrating but I saw a lot of teams getting penalties so maybe everyone is having similar issues.”

While the BONDS Flying Roos’ performance was uncharacteristic for the three-time Rolex SailGP champions, the team - miraculously - managed to stay one place ahead of Spain, maintaining their edge in the hunt for tomorrow’s Grand Final race.

“We are trying to control the situation as best we can, we are in a better position than we were at the start of the day,” said Slingsby. Continuing, “It doesn’t look like that when you are in 10th overall but as long as Spain is behind us - we are happy.”

Reflecting on exactly the day he didn’t need, Spain SailGP Team driver Diego Botín said, “It was a very light and tough day - the starts get a lot of waiting in these conditions and we pushed for it and it made us make a few mistakes. We will keep pushing tomorrow even though things aren’t super hopeful for us.

Emirates GBR’s Dylan Fletcher — who leads the fleet overall — said “There’s a lot happening with a condensed racetrack and the fleet arriving at similar times, so it gets busy fast - we saw some tight mark roundings and plenty of place changes on that final leg. I think it’ll be completely different in the Grand Final with only three boats. There’s obviously a lot more wind on the racecourse, and it’ll be a very different game.”

And while the top teams struggled, crews on the rise emerged — keeping hopes alive that Abu Dhabi could provide another first-time event winner.

ROCKWOOL Racing were the in-form team of the day, finishing on the podium in all four fleet races (two wins, a second and third). The Danish crew has 37 points on the event leaderboard - plenty of buffer ahead of Mubadala Brazil in second and Red Bull Italy in third, tied on points (22 each).

ROCKWOOL Racing driver Nicolai Sehested said “I think it was sort of the first time where we were fast in the light stuff — H1 and H2 — needing a different way to make decisions because we are sailing away as normally, we have to get the elbows out in the light stuff. It came a lot easier than normal, you have to sail fast to not have to deal with the other boats today — normally in the heavy winds we can do that but good to see we are starting to do that in the light wind.”

The return of Phil Robertson saw a series of mid-fleet results for Red Bull Italy, who found themselves third on the event leaderboard thanks to the Swiss penalty - which bumped Shneider’s crew from third to fourth. Reflecting on his F50 return, Roberston said, “I guess for the first day coming back it’s a nice way to ease into it. It’s pretty horrible out there - especially the starts — there are a lot of boats and obviously very close but it was alright. A good day and a lot of fun to be out there again.”