Luna Rossa have extended their lead in the America's Cup Challenger Series finals, but Wednesday's racing has been postponed due to Covid-19.
Photo: Studio Borlenghi
The Italians won Sunday's first race by 13 seconds and finished the second race 41 seconds ahead of the British, after comfortably winning the first two races yesterday.
Luna Rossa lead the best of 13 series 4-0, but Wednesday's next day of racing has been put on hold with Auckland moving to lockdown alert level 3.
No new date has yet been set.
Sunday's two races took place off Auckland's East Coast beaches on a course not used before for racing before in this regatta.
While race three was closely fought, the fourth race of the day was a little more clear cut.
On the pre-start entry, Luna Rossa headed out to the right-hand side of the zone with Team UK chasing.
When they came together, the British crossed Luna Rossa before gybing to leeward, but in doing so Team UK lost control and wheelied the boat.
The mistake gave the start to the Italians, but not by as much as it could have been as Team UK recovered some lost distance when Luna Rossa were early to the start.
However by gate three, the Italians held a 21sec lead and continued to maintain momentum as conditions favoured their position on the right-hand side of the course.
Passing through the last gate with just one leg to go, Luna Rossa had extended their lead to 37sec and with the breeze shifted to the right, there were few options for the British to overtake.
Luna Rossa co-helmsman Jimmy Spithill said today's racing was about getting off the line ahead.
"The scoreline doesn't reflect just how close it is. We're not thinking about the scoreline, we're taking it race by race."
Meanwhile, for Sir Ben Ainslie the frustration was clear.
"It was a tough day and we're not happy with it," he said. "We can sail a hell of a lot better than that. At this level you can't make mistakes and we made too many."
The first team to win seven races in the finals series will move on to race Team New Zealand in the America's Cup in March.
