The Rolex SailGP Championship’s 2025 Season will come to its dramatic close this weekend – with one of the fleet’s top contenders’ fate now hung in the balance. Black Foils driver Peter Burling will not participate in today’s practice sailing after being rushed to the hospital due to a hand injury on Wednesday.
The injury occurred while Burling was addressing an issue with a daggerboard (foil) – after which he was rushed to a local medical center for assessment and treatment. Speaking at this morning’s press conference, Burling said, “We had an incident in training yesterday where I ended up with a reasonably decent cut on my finger.”
Burling continued, “So, yeah, no sailing for me today, and we’ll just kind of monitor the situation as it goes. It’s not the ideal way to build up to the Grand Final, but we feel like the team’s in great shape and it’s now about doing everything I can to recover and make sure I’m ready to go.”
With the championship on the line, the 2025 Season MVP’s progress will be closely watched as the Black Foils push for their first Rolex SailGP Championship title. Strategist Liv Mackay will drive during today’s scheduled session, with Burling to be reassessed on Friday ahead of official practice racing.
The top contenders in this weekend’s Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final presented by Abu Dhabi Sports Council are Emirates GBR – leading the fleet with 85 points, followed by New Zealand (82 points), Australia (80) and defending Rolex SailGP Champions Spain just outside the podium group (76). It’s a position Los Gallos relish, with driver Diego Botín vowing not to let up in his hunt for the Aussies.
“Of course we’d like to be higher on the leaderboard with more chances of reaching the Grand Final,” Botín said. “But we’re still in a good position because all we can do now is look forward. We’ll be all in this weekend. The venue and conditions should also play to our advantage – on a small course in light winds, it becomes more of a game than at any other venue. So anything can happen.”
Having suffered his first Grand Final defeat to Botín in Season 4, BONDS Flying Roos driver Tom Slingsby said in his mind, Botín remained “the man to beat” – critically, in this weekend’s fleet racing.
“Diego’s an unbelievable competitor,” said Slingsby. “I was asked the other day who I’d least like on my hammer, and it’s definitely Diego and Spain. He’s built for these moments. He upset Pete and me in last year’s Grand Final. He loves being the underdog – it’s a situation he’s really comfortable in – and we know he performs. He won a gold medal last year, he won a world title a couple of weeks ago… he’s the man to beat.”
Emirates’ GBR leading the fleet into this weekend’s event has been one of the strongest performance arcs of the 2025 Season, starting with double-Olympic gold medalist Dylan Fletcher’s return to the British crew in Dubai (November 2024).
Fletcher said, “I guess there’s always a plan to be in this position going into the Grand Final. But, yeah, it’s been an unbelievable season with the team. I’m truly thankful for the opportunity and the whole experience the team has had – and for giving me the space to make mistakes and improve over the year.”
The Mubadala Abu Dhabi 2025 Season Grand Final presented by Abu Dhabi Sport Council closes SailGP’s 12-event 2025 Season. The weekend begins with two days of qualifying fleet racing to determine the Abu Dhabi event winner and final Rolex SailGP Championship standings. After which an event winner will be ‘crowned’ and the top-three placed teams will advance to the winner-takes-all Grand Final Race.
A staggering US $3.25 million is on the line across the weekend alone – $800,000 Abu Dhabi event winner, $450,000 for the winner on season points (who may or may not go on to win the Grand Final) and $2 million for the winner of the three-boat Grand Final race.
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