A trans-Tasman war of words has erupted after Kiwi skipper Peter Burling pulled a surprise move in the home straight that could have ended the Australian contender’s campaign at the France Sail GP in St Tropez.

The incident sparked a tirade from Australian skipper Tom Slingsby, whose boat required emergency repairs.

Burling’s move during the[CP_CALCULATED_FIELDS] drag race to the finish line of the first race on Saturday caused the Australians’ 50-foot catamaran to fall off its foils and dig its bows into the waves.

The Kiwis sped on to victory and Aussies dropped from first to fifth.

The crash damaged the Australian boat’s fairings, which were repaired in time for the second race, which Slingsby won.

On a day when SailGP’s speed record was broken twice, Burling won the third race to take a two-point lead over the United States, with the Aussies another five points back in third in the nine-boat fleet.

The top three boats after Sunday’s four fleet races advance to the podium race.

Burling is a two-time defending America’s Cup champion helmsman and a three-time Olympic medallist who is pushing for his third straight regatta win in tech mogul Larry Ellison’s global league. Two-time defending SailGP champion Slingsby came in with a four-point lead in the season standings over Burling.

The Australians took the lead rounding the final mark of the first race and the Kiwis came speeding around close behind onto the short reach to the finish. Burling took advantage of his rights as the leeward boat and luffed toward Slingsby, who had to keep clear and ended up in a spectacular splashdown.

New speed record

“We were literally just trying to get to that finish line safely in the first race,” Slingsby, an Olympic gold medallist and former America’s Cup champion, said.

“We would have happily given him the position and come in second, and unfortunately, we now have a lot of damage from an unnecessary incident … To me, him coming up at us like that is just unsafe.

“In that scenario, it’s 50/50 as to whether people get seriously injured and I just don’t think it’s worth it for one point at the start of the event. He always seems to have a pretty warped view on this type of thing so it will be interesting to hear his thoughts.”

Burling defended his move and criticised the reaction by Slingsby, a redhead who is nicknamed the “Red Mist” because of his temper.

“We were overlapped for a very long time and they were closing down to us so we were fully within our rights to do what we were doing,” Burling said.

“I think as drivers we might need to pitch in for some anger management lessons for Tom. I think it’s out of line, the swear words he was saying afterward on our race management channel.”

Sir Ben Ainslie of Britain hit a SailGP record 99.02 km/h in the first race before French skipper Quentin Delapierre broke it by hitting 99.94 km/h in the third race.

-with AAP