The final race of 2026 SailGP Rio: three boats, one race, winner takes all. The Flying Roos, Artemis and Los Gallos lined up under Sugarloaf Mountain.
Nine minutes of racing and two lead changes later, Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos disappeared.
At the start, Artemis came in early from the right, winding up speed well before the gun. Slingsby and Spain approached from the middle, tighter on time. Australia led at mark one, Spain nine seconds back, Artemis close behind. The three boats were locked together through the first two marks, none of them with enough of a gap to relax.
Artemis fouled Spain at the marks and the umpires called it immediately. Penalty. Outteridge slowed to let Spain through and dropped to third mark. Australia was already clear ahead, Spain settled into second with their nine championship points the priority rather than chasing Slingsby.
At the third mark Spain sat 31 seconds behind Australia, Sweden 26 back. By the fourth mark the gap had stretched to five and a half minutes on elapsed time, Spain and Sweden five seconds apart and now scrapping between themselves for second. Sweden received a penalty mid-race for failing to give Spain enough room, which cost them further.
By mark five Australia was 7:52 into the race, Spain 32 seconds back, Sweden 37. Slingsby brought them across the line in 9:07. Spain second 20 seconds later, Sweden third 25 later.
Four wins in a row on Sunday, three fleet races and the final, all to Australia. Slingsby said to his crew, flat and without theatre: “We raced well today.”
That covered it. Spain second, nine championship points in the bag, the new ownership group at Los Gallos with something real to show for their first Rio. Artemis third in their first ever event final, Outteridge sailing alongside Kiwis Andy Maloney and Brad Farrand, a team that came to Rio as a dark horse and left with a podium.
Congratulations to Tom Slingsby and the BONDS Flying Roos.
Race results
Event points
| Pos | Team | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BONDS Flying Roos | Tom Slingsby |
| 2 | Los Gallos | Diego Botin |
| 3 | Artemis | Nathan Outteridge |
Final race results
| Pos | Team | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BONDS Flying Roos | Tom Slingsby | 10 PTS (penalty -5) |
| 2 | Los Gallos | Diego Botin | 9 PTS |
| 3 | Artemis | Nathan Outteridge | 8 PTS |
| 4 | U.S. SailGP Team | Taylor Canfield | 7 PTS |
| 5 | ROCKWOOL Racing | Nicolai Sehested | 6 PTS |
| 6 | Germany by Deutsche Bank | Erik Heil | 5 PTS |
| 7 | Red Bull Italy | Phil Robertson | 4 PTS |
| 8 | DS Automobiles FRA | Quentin Delapierre | 3 PTS |
| 9 | Mubadala Brazil | Martine Grael | 2 PTS (penalty 10) |
| 10 | NorthStar | Giles Scott | 1 PTS |
| 11 | Switzerland | Sebastien Schneiter | 0 PTS |
| 12 | Emirates GBR | Dylan Fletcher | 0 PTS |
| 13 | Black Foils | Peter Burling | 0 PTS |
