DS Team France hit 107.63km/h in Sassnitz on Saturday, a new SailGP speed record, on the same course where Black Foils NZ finally converted their season-long comeback into a place in Sunday's final.
DS Team France hit 107.63km/h rounding the first mark of Group A's final race on Saturday, a new all-time high for an F50 anywhere in the world. It broke a record that had stood since the last time SailGP raced in Sassnitz: Denmark's 103.93km/h, set at this same venue in 2025. Twelve months on, on the same stretch of the Baltic, someone finally went faster.
France didn't win the race they set the record in. Los Gallos Spain did, recovering from an early penalty to take the win, which means the sport's fastest boat of all time finished second in its own race. Behind both of them, Black Foils NZ finished third and topped Group A outright, their best result since the Auckland collision took them out of four straight events. They missed the Halifax final by a single point. They missed Portsmouth by two. This time they didn't need a photo finish. They led Group A with a race still to sail.
The record, and why this venue keeps producing them
Sassnitz has now produced the sport's two fastest recorded speeds in its only two years on the calendar. SailGP's own preview material for this event described the course's chalk cliffs as creating wind corridors along the track, part of why the venue is already known as the fastest circuit on the calendar. Nicolai Sehested, whose Rockwool Denmark team held the previous record, said before racing this weekend that breaking it again would take everything lining up: wind strength, timing and a share of luck.
Today's conditions matched that billing. Boats were pushed to speeds where two of them, Denmark and Spain, came off the foils entirely within minutes of France's top-speed run. Sailing that high risks a foil ventilating, air pulled down its sides until it lets go without warning. Denmark, the record holder going into today, was one of the boats it happened to.
Group A: three races, three winners
New Zealand won the first race of the day. France won the second. Spain won the third, the record-breaking one. No team won twice, and it came down to New Zealand and France for the two spots in Sunday's final: 12 points to 11. Los Gallos Spain and Switzerland finished tied on 7, Spain ahead on the tiebreak after their late win, but neither goes through.
Group B: Artemis's quiet run to the final
Nathan Outteridge's Artemis Sweden didn't win a single Group B race today. They finished third in all three of them, and that was enough. Nobody else in the group fronted up three times in a row, and in this format, consistency beats a single good result when everyone else has an off day somewhere along the way. Artemis go through to Sunday's final on 9 points, one clear of NorthStar Canada.
Bonds Flying Roos supplied the day's other headline. Tom Slingsby's crew won the first two Group B races and were heading for a clean sweep until a foul on Emirates GBR in the run to the finish of the third cost them the win and dropped them to last. Germany's Erik Kosegarten-Heil won that race in front of the home crowd, his team's first win of the day.
Day one standings
Group A (top two qualify for Sunday's final): Black Foils NZ 12, DS Team France 11, Los Gallos Spain 7, Switzerland 7, Red Bull Italy 4, Rockwool Denmark 4, Mubadala Brazil 0.
Group B (top two qualify): Bonds Flying Roos 10, Artemis Sweden 9, NorthStar Canada 8, Emirates GBR 7, Germany 6, US SailGP Team 5.
Diego Botin, who drove Los Gallos to the win in the race France set the record in, put his team's turnaround down to a reset after two rough races earlier in the day. "We struggled a bit in the first two races, getting into some trouble and maybe not saving the best potential, but I think we did a good reset and a good race for the last one," he said.
Sunday's four-boat, winner-takes-all final is set: Black Foils NZ, DS Team France, Bonds Flying Roos and Artemis Sweden - well, thats on todays standings. Tomorrow we have 2 more fleet races, and only then, the final!
GROUP A
| Pos | Team | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Foils | Peter Burling | 12 PTS |
| 2 | DS Automobiles FRA | Quentin Delapierre | 11 PTS |
| 3 | Los Gallos | Diego Botin | 7 PTS |
| 4 | Explora Journeys Swiss | Sébastien Schneiter | 7 PTS |
| 5 | Red Bull Italy | Phil Robertson | 4 PTS |
| 6 | ROCKWOOL Racing | Nicolai Sehested | 4 PTS |
| 7 | Mubadala Brazil | Martine Grael | 0 PTS |
GROUP B
| Pos | Team | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BONDS Flying Roos | Tom Slingsby | 10 PTS |
| 2 | Artemis | Nathan Outteridge | 9 PTS |
| 3 | NorthStar | Giles Scott | 8 PTS |
| 4 | Emirates GBR | Dylan Fletcher | 7 PTS |
| 5 | Germany by Deutsche Bank | Erik Kosegarten-Heil | 6 PTS |
| 6 | U.S. SailGP Team | Taylor Canfield | 5 PTS |
Diego Botin, who drove Los Gallos to the win in the race France set the record in, put his team's turnaround down to a reset after two rough races earlier in the day. "We struggled a bit in the first two races, getting into some trouble and maybe not saving the best potential, but I think we did a good reset and a good race for the last one," he said.
Sunday's four-boat, winner-takes-all final is set, at this stage - and remember there is another two fleet races before the Winner Takes All Final tomorrow: Black Foils NZ, DS Team France, Bonds Flying Roos and Artemis Sweden.
