INEOS Britannia achieves the ‘match ball’ over Luna Rossa in the Louis Vuitton Cup

The final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, prior to the fight against the defender Emirates Team New Zealand in search of the 37th America’s Cup, is close to ending after the double victory this Wednesday of the English INEOS Britannia, which is 6-4 up and achieves the first ‘match ball’ over the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, which must win three races in a row if it wants to be the ‘Challenger’ that challenges the New Zealand union.

This time there were no accidents or breakages, but Luna Rossa, which tied the final at 4 on Tuesday after suffering mechanical problems in the first regatta, was unable this Wednesday to continue imposing on the water the role of favorite that is assumed outside of it. . In fact, they are now on the ropes and it is INEOS Britannia, who already took the top of the table from them on the last day of the ‘Round Robin’, who is just one victory away from reaching 7 points and being the union that aspires to snatch the America’s Cup from New Zealand.

That tension was palpable in the water, in the pre-start fight in which both boats came close to colliding, when Luna Rossa did not turn to leave room for an INEOS that protested. But without any sanction for a Luna Rossa whose play, in the long run, whether or not it was intended to bother its rival, did not work or go well.

A surprise to see the INEOS so strong, on a day with a little less wind and with a climate that went from calm to hectic, with a sky increasingly black and threatening with rain that did not fall. But the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli did fall in the third beat of the first race of the day, when it was about 5 seconds without flight and was relegated to about 100 meters of lost distance with respect to the British challenge, which made no mistakes and took the regatta with 23 seconds to spare.

“It was a difficult day to navigate the wave, but we managed the difficult conditions well, we controlled it well,” said Sir Ben Ainslie, helmsman of INEOS Britannia. And they continued to handle these varying conditions well in the second race, the tenth of this Louis Vuitton Cup Final.

And things were worse for Francesco Bruni’s Luna Rossa. “This time we completed a good race at the beginning, but we suffered a small mistake and I have the feeling that every day is like the day before, that we have to overcome it. We suffered a little with the wave, with its variation “But I blindly believe in the team and we don’t feel any pressure,” commented the Italian helmsman.

In a key, high-pressure regatta, the British union dominated the altered Barcelona sea. In another titanic fight in the starting box, INEOS took the lead with just a few meters of margin and despite the fact that Luna Rossa forced them to the limit of the regatta field, the English had more speed – a constant on this day – – and soon they were ahead, with an initiative that they would not abandon.

At the first windward gate, INEOS Britannia passed at a high speed of 49 knots and with a lead of 3 seconds over Luna Rossa, which tried to put pressure on its rival in search of a mistake that, being common in the preliminary and Even at the start of the ‘Round Robin’, not much is happening in this Louis Vuitton Cup. And even less so in this final.

In the end, the British jibed through large waves and flew high, without losing control of their AC75, towards the starboard ‘layline’ to pass the finish line with a final lead of 8 seconds, enough to break the tie that was coming. giving at the end of the previous days. A balance that is 6-4 in favor of an INEOS that, if it wins another regatta, will be a finalist and ‘Challenger’ in the grand final of this America’s Cup. Luna Rossa is already on the ropes.