RIO DE JANEIRO, April 12 (Reuters) - Three-time SailGP champions Australia's Bonds Flying Roos took the SailGP standings lead after a dominant weekend in Brazil, winning all four races in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
The Australian team, led by Tom Slingsby, led the fleet in Guanabara Bay in front of the Sugarloaf Mountain from virtually the start to the finish line throughout the day, including the event final against Spain's Los Gallos and Sweden's Artemis.
"Quite tricky racing conditions with the geography that we have around the racetrack, but incredible all the same. Today we had some amazing breeze and we were able to settle ourselves and get in the groove every race," Australia's strategist Tash Bryant told reporters.
The Bonds Flying Roos climbed ahead of Emirates GBR to top the standings with 35 points, claiming their second victory of the year after their triumph in New Zealand.
Defending champions Britain couldn't find good winds in Rio, failing to reach the event final for the first time this season. Helmed by Dylan Fletcher, the Emirates GBR team finished 12th in Brazil and now trail the leaders by seven points.
Winners of the prior stage in Sydney in March, the United States, led by Taylor Canfield, finished fourth in Brazil and complete the top three in the overall standings after four events.
"I think this event would have done a really good job for us in the leaderboard standings. Our closest competitors didn't have the best event... it was a really good event for us, so hopefully we can take that on for the rest of the season," Bryant added.
The Brazil leg of the SailGP championship was the fourth event of the 2026 season, following stops in Perth, Auckland and Sydney. The global sailing series will next move to Bermuda for the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix on May 9-10, before heading to New York later in the month.
SailGP is an international competition featuring high-speed races in identical F50 foiling catamarans capable of exceeding 100 kph (60 mph). The league pits national teams against each other in a series of regattas at iconic locations worldwide.
The weekend marked the first-ever visit of the boats to South America, after the Rio event scheduled for May last year had to be cancelled following the discovery of a defect in select wingsails in the F50 fleet.
The issue emerged after the Australian boat's wing collapsed in San Francisco, prompting further testing and analysis.
The Brazilian boat, helmed by two-time Olympic sailing champion Martine Grael - who won one of her gold medals in the same Rio waters in 2016 - had a tough home debut, finishing 9th among 12 competing teams.
(Reporting by Pedro FonsecaEditing by Christian Radnedge)
