Great Britain cross the line ahead of New Zealand's Black Foils in the final race at the SailGP Spain Grand Prix in Cadiz, Spain. Photo: SailGP
The Black Foils have moved into second place in the SailGP championship, after just being edged out by Great Britain in the Spain Grand Prix final.
The New Zealanders held the lead approaching the final mark in Cadiz on Monday, but a slingshot manoeuvre by the British team saw them overtake and win by a narrow margin.
The Kiwis moved up a place in the overall standings, putting them in a good position ahead of the grand final in Abu Dhabi.
They had sat third after the first day of racing in Cadiz and accumulated enough points on the second day to make the final against Great Britain and Germany.
The Kiwis and Brits both held the lead at different stages of the final, before the decisive move at the final mark forced the Black Foils on to a bad angle.
"On that final turn towards the finish, we thought we'd be able to get to the zone off the left boundary, but we ended up on a much worse angle than expected going into the last mark,'' Black Foils driver Peter Burling said.
"We were trying to get into the zone on the inside, but the Brits managed to just get an overlap on the outside. At that point we were just trying to make something happen. Still, we were happy to secure second and extend our gap over Spain and Australia in the overall standings."
It was a much better result than in the Swiss leg last month when they were eighth.
"I'm really pleased with how the team bounced back after what we saw as a tough result in Geneva," Burling said.
"We put together a solid weekend here and executed the final pretty much the way we wanted to - getting those right turns at the bottom. We lost a bit each time, which was frustrating, but overall it was a really good weekend for us. It's nice to be back here and we're already looking forward to getting into Abu Dhabi."
The season grand final is at Abu Dhabi on 2 December. A series of fleet races will determine who picks up event points, before the top three teams overall will face off in a winner-takes-all race to decide the season champion.
Britain became the first team to win three Grand Prix this season.
Their driver, Dylan Fletcher, said it was an unbelievable weekend for the team.
"We had to fight hard for it. We'd been fighting through the fleet all day, so we just kept pushing. It was a great battle with the Black Foils - they were sailing brilliantly too - but we managed to come out on top."
Britain lead the championship with 85 points, just three ahead of the Black Foils, with Australia two points further back in third.
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