SailGP: "Demolition Derby" after the dolphin break - Vettel's Team Germany proves itself

Rarely has the usually controlled New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling been seen raising his fist so often and so emotionally to the sky above New Zealand. This home victory tasted particularly good to the helmsman of the "Black Foils" and his team. Not only had the Kiwis put on a gala performance in front of their home crowd right up to the triple final, which they won with aplomb. With the victory, they also took the lead in the season standings after nine of 13 regattas, ousting Tom Slingsby and the Australians from the top of the table after their failure in Lyttelton harbour.

Turbulent SailGP show for the fans

With another perfectly timed start and flawless laps in the harbour area of Lyttelton, America's Cup dominator and 49er Olympic champion Peter Burling and his crew left no doubt as to who rules the professional league in the land of the long white cloud. After the cancellation of the races the day before, when the sighting of Hector's dolphins on the race course made it impossible to hold the event, the turbulent final day made up for the missed action in many ways, even if not all the teams were happy in the evening in New Zealand.

Peter Burling's wing trimmer Blair Tuke said: "We wanted to put on a great show for the fans on the water today and we are very happy that we managed to do that. I'm absolutely thrilled. A great regatta weekend, a win at home, crowds of fans and beautiful conditions - it doesn't get any better than this." In the final, the Kiwis relegated Quentin Delapierre and Team France as well as their compatriot Phil Robertson and his Canadian team to second and third place. Spain had previously narrowly missed out on a place in the final of the top three teams.

Sebastian Vettel's racing team also finished the regatta in New Zealand on a positive note. Although the Germany SailGP Team was not able to shine this time with its too hesitant starts, it was able to shine with successful catch-up races. As at the previous regatta in Sydney, helmsman Erik Heil and his team once again finished fifth among the ten SailGP powers in New Zealand as the youngest newcomers to the league.

Our team proved itself with this ship today in highly stressful situations on the race course" (Lennart Briesenick)

Sebastian Vettel's Team Germany strong in battle

Coach Lennart Briesenick summed things up accordingly: "I'm quite happy with the result and the assessment. It was really difficult sailing for everyone today. A huge amount of work. But viewed objectively from the outside, our team proved itself today with this boat in highly stressful situations on the race course here. You could also see that all the other teams had difficulties. Our team managed to work its way forwards in every race. So hats off for this achievement, sailing the boat technically and keeping an overview."

At the same time, Lennart Briesenick also saw potential for optimisation after the three races up to the final: "One very clear area for improvement is the starts. There were three starts that were not good. We have to work on that in the future to enable us to finish even higher up."

Erik Heil also knew: "We had bad starts. Our start strategy had worked well at the last two events. The event here was a negative example, where the strategy didn't really work. That didn't feel good. Of course, fifth place overall is great. But it was also the case that we said to ourselves: 'If we'd had a cool day today, we would have made it to the final'." The German Formula 1 sailing team is getting hungrier.

Australians collide with price marker

Erik Heil, who was "more on the conservative side" with his team during the fast-paced action, continued: "There were only four boats that didn't have a crash this weekend. We were well on the outside and kept out of trouble." The Australians had completely different problems. The three-time SailGP season winners around helmsman Tom Slingsby suffered particularly badly in the "Demolition Derby" in the first race in Lyttelton harbour.

It's a scary moment when you feel like you could kill someone" (Tom Slingsby)

The team from Down Under, who were used to winning, collided with a course marker in the very first race and had to retire after the shock with considerable damage. "I realised in that situation that we were going to hit Canada full on and our bow was going to hit their strategist (Edited by Annie Haegar)," Tom Slingsby later reported. "I had to make a decision and had people's safety in mind. So I pushed the boat as hard as I could towards the mark." Slingsby added that he "knew the marker was there - I had seen it".

The sailing star, who was obviously affected by the incident, continued: "It was quite emotional. It's a scary moment when you feel like you could kill someone." In light of the events, Slingsby even doubted that Australia would be able to compete in the upcoming regatta in Bermuda, as the collision had caused "extensive" damage.

Dominator Tom Slingsby "in shock"

The dramatic barrel collision meant that Australia not only lost 8 points in the season standings and 10 points in the event standings, but was also eliminated in New Zealand. The Australians slipped back to second place behind New Zealand in the season rankings. However, Slingsby said he "didn't care" about the results, adding that he was "still in shock". All that remained for the Green and Yellows in Christchurch was an unaccustomed last place behind the Danes, who were handed eight painful penalty points for a collision of their own making and failed to get back into their usual stride, finishing 8th, 8th and 6th.

In the season standings, New Zealand is now ahead of Australia (59 points), Spain (55 points) and France (55 points) with 68 points before the last four SailGP summits. Team Germany (27 points) will have a tough time in their debut season, even if they continue to perform well, to climb up from ninth place behind the British (45 points), who are weakening with their new helmsman Giles Scott, and ahead of the bottom-placed team from Switzerland (22 points).

The fourth SailGP season will continue on 4 and 5 May in the former America's Cup area off Bermuda and will end after a total of 13 regattas with the grand finale from 13 to 15 July shortly before the start of the Olympic Games in San Francisco.

Click here for the results of the ninth regatta of the fourth SailGP season.

Regatta action reloaded! The highlights from the second (and only) day of racing at the SailGP in New Zealand:

It could have ended much worse - the shock collision with the course mark of Tom Slingsby and his Australia SailGP Team in race one: