Day 1, Group B, Race 3 – Nicolai Sehested had been chasing this all season. Rockwool Denmark led the closing race of Group B's opening day from the gun to the finish, denying Los Gallos a clean sweep and handing Spain their first defeat of the weekend on home water.
Denmark nails the start
The breeze had dropped again, down to 13 km/h by the time the fleet lined up for the third and final race of the day, and it was Denmark who read it best. Sehested's crew accelerated hard in the twenty seconds after the gun, popped onto the foils first, and drove straight over the top of Los Gallos to take Mark 1. Wing trimmer Tom Johnson and flight controller Ed Powys made it look simple. It hasn't been, most of this season. Denmark have struggled through the early rounds, and this was the clearest sign yet that the pieces are starting to fit.
Spain and USA followed through Mark 1 in the same order they'd held all day, but the gap behind Denmark was already open.
USA's mistake, Spain's opportunity
Diego Botín's crew manoeuvred early for clean air at the DP World Gate, forcing Taylor Canfield's boat into a wider line and an extra manoeuvre on the outside. USA used the extra speed from that turn well, briefly threatening to close back onto Spain, but it came at a cost: it was the third time in three races Canfield's crew had missed the jump on a boundary manoeuvre.
The bigger error came moments later. Trying to force the boat onto the foils too aggressively, USA stalled the wing and dropped straight back onto the water, the kind of mistake that costs several boat-lengths in an instant in this breeze. Spain sailed through into second and didn't look back. USA held on for third, their third podium of the day but a result that could easily have been a second.
Germany gambles left and gets away with it
Facing the same inside-line trap that had cost them earlier in the day, Germany's Erik Kosegarten-Heil split left at the gate while every other boat in the fleet went right, a gamble that needed an extra manoeuvre to pay off and could just as easily have buried them. It held. Germany crossed fourth, well clear of Canada.
The Canadian crew, so effective in a breeze all season, have found the light stuff a genuine struggle in Valencia. A fifth here closed out a day of fifth, sixth and fifth for Giles Scott's team, the weakest scorecard in the group by some margin. France brought up the rear.
Group B after day one
Spain's two wins and a second gives Los Gallos 14 points from the day's three races, the platform Diego Botín's crew wanted heading into Sunday. Denmark's win lifts them to second on 12, USA sit third on 10 having finished on the podium in all three races without winning one. France, Germany and Canada make up the bottom three, with real work still to do if any of them are to force their way into the group's two qualifying spots.
Result
Race 3 result (Group B): 1. ROCKWOOL Racing (Nicolai Sehested), 2. Los Gallos (Diego Botín), 3. U.S. SailGP Team (Taylor Canfield), 4. Germany by Deutsche Bank (Erik Kosegarten-Heil), 5. NorthStar (Giles Scott), 6. DS Automobiles FRA (Quentin Delapierre)
Group B standings after Day 1: 1. Los Gallos 14pts, 2. ROCKWOOL Racing 12pts, 3. U.S. SailGP Team 10pts, 4. DS Automobiles FRA 4pts, 5. Germany by Deutsche Bank 3pts, 6. NorthStar 2pts
