Australia wins Race 5 in Rio as GBR finish last with finals hopes near gone

Sunday finally delivered the conditions Guanabara Bay had been threatening all week. A 25-knot breeze swept across the water, Race 5 got away cleanly, and the F50 fleet was up on foils from the moment the starting gun sounded. Tom Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos were quickest to make those conditions count. Launching from behind the pack, they drove through the fleet with genuine pace and had established control before the race had properly settled. Artemis found second place not long after the start, while most of the chasing boats stayed compressed together, unable to generate any meaningful forward momentum.

For Emirates GBR, the afternoon unravelled almost from the first seconds. Two early protests produced nothing useful, and by Mark 1 they were already 33 seconds adrift of the lead. Without a race win to their name, a place in the event final had been hanging by a thread going into the day, and a start like that made the thread even thinner.

At the front of the fleet, the contest quickly became a three-way affair between Australia, Artemis, and Red Bull Italy. Australia collected a pre-start penalty at the gun but carried enough raw pace to absorb it without serious damage. Brazil also started under a pre-start penalty. Further back, the midfield produced another tight and scrappy battle, much as it had across the four races run on Saturday. Denmark's day took a sharp turn for the worse at Mark 3, where a foul on Spain while on starboard tack drew three penalties in quick succession. They fell back through the fleet and eventually crossed the line in eighth. Germany never found its way into the contest at all, spending most of the race near the tail of the fleet.

The margins up front stayed close enough to keep the race alive across several legs. Australia held a four-second lead over Artemis at Mark 1, with Italy close behind. By Mark 2, Artemis had trimmed that gap to five seconds, while Italy sat 15 seconds back. Spain and the United States had already worked clear of the chasing group. Then came the moment that reshaped the podium. Artemis came off the foils and lost speed, and Italy moved through to take second. At Mark 5, Australia led Italy by five seconds, Artemis sat 14 seconds back, Spain was 21 adrift, and the United States had fallen 34 seconds behind the leader. There was still pressure to be applied, but the Flying Roos sailed cleanly and quickly, stretching away on the final run to seal the win.

Italy crossed in second for its second podium finish in two days, with Phil Robertson keeping Red Bull Italy firmly in contention throughout. Artemis took third, though there will have been real frustration aboard the Swedish boat. They had arrived with a clear race plan, but the start timing was slightly off and the mid-race loss of speed ultimately proved too costly to overcome. Spain finished fourth, the United States fifth, Switzerland sixth, France seventh, Denmark eighth following its penalty drama, Brazil ninth, Canada tenth, Germany eleventh, and Emirates GBR last. GBR was still out on the course when the race concluded, more than five minutes behind Australia. The commentary team was saying plainly what the scoreboard had already made obvious: GBR's path to the final was all but gone. With two fleet races still to run, they needed a turnaround that nothing in the first five races had suggested was coming.

For the second consecutive day, Australia, Italy, and Artemis filled the top three positions, and it was beginning to look like more than coincidence. Saturday had hinted at a pattern, and Sunday turned that hint into something far more convincing. In Guanabara Bay, clean and fast starts were proving decisive. Miss the line, or arrive without speed, and catching the leading group once they had established themselves became very difficult. The bay was rewarding a particular style of sailing, and the same teams kept finding it. Two fleet races remained before the final, and with proper breeze at last filling Rio, Sunday was shaping into the day this event had been building towards.

Race results

Fleet race 5 results

Fleet race total results after Race 5