Day 1 of Prada Cup Challenger Series Final – Luna Rossa dominate

The America’s Cup live stream of the Prada Cup Challenger Series Final. . . INEOS Team UK take on Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team.

Luna Rossa take a 2-0 lead over Ineos Team UK after the first day of racing in the Prada Cup Final.

Ineos tweeted . . . Not the start the team were after in the Prada Cup Final but a long way to go in the first-to-seven win series.

Four races are scheduled for the first weekend of racing.

Forecast Wind: 8-12 knot seabreeze by first race time, building during the race period.

Prada Final Race 1:

Win for Luna Rossa by 1:52 ahead of Ineos Team UK.

Luna Rossa led from the start after Ineos had a penalty and were off foils at start.
Luna Rossa had 1:20 and 790 metre lead at Gate 1 and stretched that throughout the race to 2:03 (1500+ metres) at Gate 5. Finishing with a comfortable 1:52 lead.

Ineos struggled to stay on their foils in the early part of the race, especially out of the tacks, recovering as the breeze increased to 14 knots.

Ben Ainslie . . . ‘We were definitely slow in that race.’

Prada Final Race 2:

Win for Luna Rossa by 0:22 ahead of Ineos Team UK.

Breeze up to 17 knots for race 2 and Ineos just edging the lead accross the line to leeward of Luna Rossa. Luna Rossa tacked away early to right hand side and led at the first cross by 48 meters.

Luna Rossa lead at the first mark was 11 sec and 270 metres. Slowly increased lead to 0:26 at gate 5 and held that to the finish with a 450 metre gap at the finish line. Maxiumum speed was Luna Rossa with 47.97 knots.

Ben Ainslie . . . ‘We have to go away and think about how we can get a bit more pace.’

Ineos tweeted . . . Not the start the team were after in the Prada Cup Final but a long way to go in the first-to-seven win series.

Racing continues Sunday at same time with races 3 and 4.

The Final is a 13 match-race series with the first to win seven races the winner, and going through to meet the defender ETNZ in the 36th America’s Cup match in early March.

America’s Cup – Ben and Georgie Ainslie discuss what to expect this Saturday