NZ closes gap on Aussies with back-to-back sail GP wins

Peter Burling has skippered New Zealand to its second straight SailGP victory, claiming the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix to pull closer to rival Australia in the Season 4 standings.

Burling beat Spain's Diego Botin, the leader after Saturday's first three fleet races, and Team USA's Taylor Canfield in the podium race in light wind on the Persian Gulf on Sunday.

Team Australia's three-time defending SailGP champion Tom Slingsby missed the podium race for the first time this season and finished seventh.

New Zealand jumped from third to second in the season standings in tech billionaire Larry Ellison's global league, just six points behind Australia.

The Americans climbed from fifth to third, 13 points off the lead. The top three teams in the 10-boat fleet at the end of the season advance to the $2 million, winner-take-all grand final on San Francisco Bay on July 14.

Slingsby easily won Sunday's first fleet race. But he mistimed the start of the second race, crossed early and was penalised, forcing him to the back of the fleet and an eventual ninth-place finish.

"Something went wrong with our software and we paid the price for it," said Slingsby, a former America's Cup champion and Olympic gold medallist who hasn't won a regatta this season.

"It does not change the strategy for us. Our big goal is to win at the end of the season, so we just need to make that final."

New Zealand also won in Dubai in mid-December and have won three of seven regattas this season, with six to go.

"It's been really great for our team to get a couple of wins on the board and really close up that gap to the Australians in front," said Burling, the two-time defending America's Cup champion helmsman and a three-time Olympic medalist.

New Zealand were sixth in both races Sunday, enough to squeeze into the podium race. They had a perfect start to get the important inside track to the first mark and sailed away with the win.

The next regatta is the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix on Sydney Harbour on February 24-25.