The America’s Cup Prada Cup Challenger Series Final . . . Luna Rossa finish day 2 with a 4-0 lead over Ineos Team UK in the Prada Cup Final..
No let-up in the pressure for Ben Ainslie and Ineos team UK as Luna Rossa took two more race wins on the second day of the Prada Cup Final in Auckland, New Zealand.
A loss of control by the British team in the pre-start phase of race 4, lead to Ineos taking off and then crashing down, in an incident reminiscent to the American Magic capsize, but fortunately no hull damage resulted.
Ainslie was hit by the mainsail as he went to cross the boat, but was uninjured and recovered quickly.
Ainslie commented . . .
“Tough day, not happy with it. We can sail a lot better than that and we need to. Gave two races to those guys, bad getting off of the start line. They didn’t give us a chance to get back into it and at this level, you can’t make mistakes.”
Prada Cup Final Race 3:
Win for Luna Rossa by 13 sec ahead of Ineos Team UK after a very close race.
Prada Cup Final Race 4:
Another win for Luna Rossa by 41 sec ahead of Ineos Team UK after close race on early legs before Luna Rossa stretch away from leg 3, to take a comfortable 800 metre win.
Taking the overall score to 4-0 for Luna Rossa, with a two day break before racing resumes on Wednesday**.
A feature of both races was the close cover Luna Rossa was able to apply from the start of both races, not allowing the British boat to find a passing lane.
Jimmy Spithill summed it up . . .
“Today’s racing was more about getting off the line in front, which we did a great job of. Foot on the throat approach and the boys on the handles did a great job and we gained out of each tack.”
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.
After this first weekend of four races there is a two day break, with racing recommencing on Wednesday 17** through to Sunday 22 February if required.
Note: ** The New Zealand Government as introduced a new coronavirus lockdown in Auckland, and the Prada Cup racing is postponed to a date to be decided. See Statement here . . .
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