America's Cup: Brits defend pole position in the "car park" America's Cup

Challenging light wind conditions made sailing on foils difficult for the teams on the second day of the Prada Cup. The British once again made the best of it. Sir Ben Ainslie's Ineos Team UK won its only match of the day against Team New York Yacht Club American Magic. In the second duel, Patrizio Bertelli's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team prevailed against the Americans, who thus remain winless for the time being. Team boss Terry Hutchinson described the black day as one "for character building". The Brits lead the intermediate standings with 3-0 wins ahead of the Italians with a 1-1 record and the less fortunate Americans (0-3).

What happens when the winds are so light that the boats repeatedly fall off their foils was experienced brutally on this day, especially by the Americans: While the Italians were already sailing across the start line late, they were still stuck in the starting box with their hulls in the water in eight knots of wind. Instead of fighting a fiery duel with the Azzurri, they were at times standing still as if in a car park and were already 250 metres behind when they finally got their hull over the start line. However, the rest of the race in average winds of eight to rarely even 14 knots with a whole series of downward deviations caused tension to build up again in the meantime when the Americans closed a 700 metre gap and even overtook the Italians. But before the second goal, the Azzurri were able to turn the race back in their favour in the "minefield" (Francesco Bruni) and bring it home. In doing so, they scored their first winning point in this challenger round at the sixth Cup attempt of racing stable owner Bertelli. The Americans, on the other hand, lagged so far behind in the match with Italy that they did not even make it to the finish line in the 45-minute time limit.

Italian helmsman Francesco Bruni said after the race: "I am sure that our big foils will help us in these conditions. But today it was all about staying under good pressure. Was it difficult to keep calm in this game of nerves? That was by far the hardest thing! Especially for us Italians!" You can just imagine the liberated smile on his face. Opponent Dean Barker had far less reason to be happy on board the American "Patriot", saying after his team's second defeat: "I would call this a lottery today, but that's part of the competition." When asked why "Patriot" - like the Italians - had not sailed with the biggest headsail in such little wind, Barker said: "We didn't expect the wind to be so light." In fact, the breeze had dropped significantly in the last few minutes before the start.

In the second match of the day, "Britannia" and "Patriot" struggled even more over the course. Sir Ben Ainslie, Giles Scott and the Ineos Team UK were able to convincingly refute the assumption that they might still be travelling with a light wind weakness. On the contrary, they were sometimes agonisingly slow around the turning marks, especially the first one, around which they heaved their foiler on the hull at speeds of less than one knot, as if in slow motion. But as the duel progressed, which was hardly a duel at all, the British impressed with much better take-off performances.

This is how it went for the three challengers on day 2 of the Prada Cup...

For this second race of the day, the wind force was given as eight to twelve knots at the end. Because the wind had also shifted, the race committee had to postpone the start and realign the course axis. The confident Ineos Team UK, which sailed into the starting box on time, encountered Americans who were obviously off their game, messed up their timing and dived in too early. Not only did they receive a penalty for this, but they also fell off the foils and couldn't get back up, while the Brits put on a little muscle show on the right-hand side of the pre-start arena. When "Britannia" finally shot over the start line, the Americans looked like a dead fish in the water.

After an extremely late start, "Patriot" eventually got on the foils and finally picked up speed during the slow first rounding of the buoys by the British. The Americans suddenly came roaring along at a boat speed of 33.9 knots - but only to slow down as much as the Ainslie team had done before, even when approaching the top mark. At times, the duel could have been called a race. World-class sailor Ken Read, one of three strong TV commentators alongside Olympic champions Shirley Robertson and Nathan Outteridge, asked aloud: "Could this be the slowest rounding of a buoy ever?"

As the race progressed, the Brits coped better with the "lift conditions", in which both teams repeatedly fell off the foils. Even they, as the front runners, had to worry about reaching the finish line of the already shortened course within the time limit. They finally managed to do so two minutes before time ran out. The Americans also crossed the finish line 59 seconds later. "I think we drew the unlucky number in the lottery," said skipper Terry Hutchinson later in the press conference.

What skippers and tacticians said after the second day of racing in the challenger round

The round robin preliminary round of the Prada Cup continues on Sunday. Patrizio Bertelli's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team will then be the team that has to race twice in a row and will try to shake up the current British dominance. Sir Ben Ainslie also attributed the opening success on this second day of the challenger round to his grinders: "They have to work extremely hard even on normal days. But today, in these light winds, they really did a great job."

Click here for the results and interim results.