America's Cup: Sir Ben's Brits flop, failure and prestigious victory for Artemis

The team of the second qualifying day was undoubtedly the Kiwis. They won both their races against the Japanese SoftBank Team Japan and Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR and left the arena of the Great Sound outside Hamilton on Sunday unbeaten. And they did so despite being rather weak at the starts and not being masters of their craft at all times during the races. In their first duel of the day, the Kiwis narrowly beat their ex-skipper Dean Barker and SoftBank Team Japan at the start, but the lead changed hands several times as the race progressed. Only technical errors by Barker and his team opened the door to a final breakthrough on leg five of seven. During this phase, it also became clear how much power the cyclists on board the New Zealand "Aotearoa" were generating and how much momentum they were giving the boat. The duel increasingly developed into a gala performance by 49er Olympic champion Peter Burling and his team, who finally crossed the finish line 33 seconds ahead of the beaten Japanese.

Day 2 is Cup history. What the coxswains of the teams had to say and how they rate the results

In their second duel of the day, the Kiwis inflicted another painful defeat on the Brits, who had already been beaten by Oracle Team USA. In this case, Sir Ben Ainslie and his team Land Rover BAR had clearly sailed the better, even really good start in a sudden wind shift shortly before the start, while the Kiwis had to start again and crossed the line too late. In addition, the New Zealanders even conceded a penalty because they entered the starting box too early - a mistake that was as unnecessary as it was embarrassing. "We will analyse this mistake in detail and examine how it could have happened," said helmsman Peter Burling after the race and conceded: "Something like this really shouldn't happen."

But not even this series of early mistakes by the New Zealanders was enough for the Brits, who made several errors in the course of the clash with the Kiwis. A completely unsuccessful jibe by the Brits at the halfway point of the encounter with Emirates Team New Zealand was the deciding factor. The Kiwis pulled away, turning the eagerly awaited race into a demonstration of power, while Knight Ainslie and his men had to swallow the almost one and a half minute deficit at the finish. "The damage from yesterday didn't matter today," skipper and helmsman Ainslie honestly stated after effusive praise for his boat builders, "we would have liked to have rewarded them with points today, but we made a whole series of handling errors. And a few tactical ones too. We will have to analyse that and improve."

In addition to the Kiwis, there was another winner of the day: the French Groupama Team France only had to complete one race against the Swedes, in line with the programme. In this opening encounter on Sunday, the French team shed their previous role as easy prey for their opponents and won the exciting duel by three seconds after several lead changes. The jubilation at the finish line was correspondingly great for the blatant underdogs. Sky pundit and TV co-commentator Jochen Schümann said: "It's fantastic that they are no longer the permanent points supplier." Skipper Franck Cammas was overjoyed with his team's first victory: "It was a very wet job today, but a nice surprise for us. It's just great for the future. And yes, Artemis is a great team and I believe that we can beat other teams too." Defending champion Jimmy Spithill commented matter-of-factly on the French team's surprise victory: "No disrespect to Franck, but the bookies had Artemis ahead in the duel. But then Franck and his boys simply sailed better. So today was a day about sailing well and avoiding some mean fields out there. I don't think boat speed played a role today."

Where there are winners, there must also be losers: On Sunday, the losers were Land Rover BAR (2 defeats), SoftBank Team Japan (2 defeats) and Artemis. Although the Swedes were able to inflict the first defeat on the American defending champions, they had previously lost their duel against the French outsiders and were accordingly annoyed about it. Nathan Outteridge, helmsman, explained why things went so well for Artemis against the strongest team at the moment: "We gave Iain Percy (editor: team manager and tactician) the opportunity to get away from the grind a bit more often so that he could get a better overview, and our three front guys worked really hard today to enable him to do that. I think that made a big difference."

A look at the crew lists for the three races that the Americans had to contest once again showed how confidently the defenders performed despite the defeat against Artemis. They swapped three people from the first to the second race. Tactician Tom Slingsby only came on board for rounds two and three. Another grinder was replaced for the third race. No other team made crew changes on Sunday, while the Americans experimented and conserved their strength at the same time.

The fact that the Brits - level on points with the Kiwis - are still in second place behind the defending champions (5 points) after this black day is thanks to their two bonus points from the World Series. However, this comfortable lead has now been used up. If Ainslie and Land Rover BAR want to compete for the qualification win, they will have to go the extra mile from Monday. And possibly bring a few crates of beer to the rival camp of SoftBank Team Japan. Their skipper Dean Barker officially called for the gesture in the press conference when he said with a smile: "Our Shore crew are looking forward to Ben bringing over a few crates of beer tonight. That didn't happen yesterday... That being said, we'll start tomorrow well prepared again."