First Russell Coutts' name was shown on the big scoreboard at Marina Green in San Francisco, then Jimmy Spithill's in the second race. The home team from Oracle Racing left no stone unturned and took command of the Fleetrace competition in the new grey weather and four force winds. Coutts celebrated a start-finish victory in the first race. In the next race, Spithill overtook the rebellious Chinese, who had briefly been in the lead, on the first room sheet course and then kept both Swedish Artemis boats at bay with schoolmasterly calm. The numerous training days on the Bay pay off, because the only winner here is the one who finds the right lane in the current, and in San Francisco that is not an exact science.
Spithill is located in the Fleetrace overall ranking with places 2 and 1 and 22 points ahead of Coutts, who finished sixth after his opening win and is six points behind. Behind him was the first debutant, Argentinian Tornado crack Santiago Lange, who skilfully manoeuvred Artemis Red around the course and is only two points behind Coutts after finishing sixth and second. In fourth place was Artemis White with Terry Hutchinson, followed by Team Korea with Nathan Outteridge, who wanted to prove that he has a better grip on the AC45 than some of his prominent colleagues after being eliminated in the match race qualifiers.
One of them, Ben Ainslie with JP Morgan BAR, had to learn the hard way after his not entirely uncontroversial promotion to the match race quarter-finals on Wednesday and found himself in the cheaper places with 10th and 5th place. Conclusion: 8th place overall. Dean Barker fared similarly with co-favourite Team New Zealand, who missed out with an eighth and a ninth place. The manoeuvre criticism was that he overslept at the start and didn't make it to the front. But Barker will definitely not be hiding at the back. "There are still three race days to go," the Kiwi skipper consoled himself, "and in the very last race there are 40 points for the win.
In the first two matches of the match race quarter-finals, match race champion Hutchinson with Artemis White eliminated the Italians from Luna Rossa Swordfish with Paul Campbell-Jame. Luna Rossa Piranha and Chris Draper were then eliminated by Oracle Racing Spithill. Hutchinson and Spithill are therefore the first semi-finalists, the other two will be determined today in the pairings JP Morgan BAR against Team New Zealand and Oracle Racing Coutts against Energy Team.
The first start of the first match race will take place at 14:05 local time, which is 23:05 CEST. Live pictures are available on YouTube channel or with the new America's Cup app for iPhone and iPad (Android coming soon), which provides viewers with the latest news, results, videos, event information and live pictures. Free download in the iTunes app store.
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