'Not the finest day' for Emirates GBR but Driver Dylan Fletcher says team will 'come out strong'
by Emirates GBR SailGP Team 23 Mar 17:18 AEDT
22-23 March 2025
The Emirates GBR SailGP Team is currently sixth on the leaderboard after day one of the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix. Driver Dylan Fletcher said it was "not the finest day" for he and his team, after coming away with a result of 8-2-4-11 in the four fleet races, but said they would "come out strong tomorrow" for race day two.
Fletcher said: "It was fantastic conditions here in San Francisco today but unfortunately we couldn't quite get it together. We struggled in a couple of the races so we will have to look at what we need to work on overnight, but overall it wasn't our finest day. The starts were quite challenging for us, and we couldn't quite make the progress on the course that we have done previously. We know it's going to be up and down this season so it's just a case of coming out strong tomorrow and I think we'll be just fine."
Known for strong currents and big breeze, San Francisco offers some of the most tactical racing on the Rolex SailGP calendar. The day didn't get off to the best start for Emirates GBR as the team came away with an eighth-place finish in the first race of the day. France managed to take the win in race one after nailing the start and maintaining the lead throughout the six legs, keeping Australia and Spain at bay who finished in second and third respectively.
The second race saw Emirates GBR pull off an impressive move at the third gate to jump from seventh to third as they dived on the inside of USA, Mubadala Brazil and Red Bull Italy around the mark. It was a case of Driver Dylan Fletcher seeing his chance to make gains on the course and grabbing it with both hands, and it paid off. The crew managed to make another gain on the course to finish in second, just behind Giles Scott's Canadian team.
Race three started with the Brits in a mid-fleet position and them working their way up the fleet to battle Australia for third place on the final leg. The crew eventually ended up in fourth place, with Spain taking the win, followed by Canada and Australia. The day ended in frustration for Emirates GBR as they were in line for a 7th place finish before falling off the foils at the final mark, leaving them in 11th place.
Emirates GBR will be back on the racecourse under the Golden Gate Bridge tomorrow, when racing resumes with three full fleet races scheduled before the top three teams progress to the winner-takes-all event final. UK viewers can follow all the action live on TNT Sports 4 and Discovery+ from 21:30 GMT.