In a complete turn around from the Round Robins, Luna Rossa took all four initial races of the PRADA Cup Final.
The largest margin of victory was in race one, in which the British team incurred the first of two boundary penalties. However, the dominant team was Luna Rossa. Race two was closer – just a 26 second gap – but it went to the Italians.
At the end of the first day of racing Ben Ainslie said: “The Italians did a good job, they sailed just a bit faster and bit better around the course. Luna Rossa are a great team and it is pretty hard to get past them if they don’t make many mistakes.”
On day two, a first tight race saw Luna Rossa and INEOS TEAM UK displaying perfect one-on-one duels of tacks and tactics. This was followed by a race in which the British team made one pre-start mistake and were left chasing the Italians for the remainder of the race. With the boats’ performance looking pretty even, the start became a defining moment. The Italians simply sailed better and dictated both races.
In what was probably a welcome postponement for the British team, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered Auckland to go into lockdown after the discovery of three new local cases of Covid-19. The country, which has a population of five million, has recorded just over 2,300 coronavirus cases and 25 deaths.
