America’s Cup: Ineos Britannia, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli make perfect start to Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals

Two down, three to go.

It was the perfect start to the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Ineos Britannia.

On a day of shifty breeze, the two top seeds from the round-robin stage of the challenger series showed their class, although the two best-of-nine series got off to drastically different starts.

Italy’s Luna Rossa claimed wins in two razor-thin encounters against American Magic, trailing at the start of both races and having to snatch the lead back from the Americans several times.

That came after American Magic used their 15-minute delay card – of which all teams get one per series – to address an issue on board before racing had started for the day.

For Luna Rossa’s starboard helmsman Jimmy Spithill, bagging two wins was a good way to start but there was plenty of work still to be done.

“We’ve just got to keep chipping away and keep taking the lessons,” Spithill said. “This is going to be a close semi, so we’ve just got to take it one step at a time and chip away.”

It was two bad mark roundings - one in each race - that essentially opened the door for the Italians, with American Magic twice losing pace at the marker.

In a competition as high-level as the America’s Cup, they’re the kinds of mistakes that will be punished by the good teams and Luna Rossa took full advantage.

“Today I feel like the luck wasn’t on our side,” American Magic port helmsman Lucas Calabrese said.

“Hopefully we’ll change that tomorrow.”

On the other side of the draw, the British looked a class above Switzerland’s Alinghi Red Bull Racing, particularly on the downwind legs where they have excelled throughout the regatta so far.

Alinghi started the first race well to lead on the first upwind leg, but couldn’t hold off the fast-charging Brits once they rounded the marker and headed downwind.

From there, Ineos Britannia built a good lead, which was pushed out when a bad manoeuvre on leg four saw the Swiss touchdown.

Their second race was over when it began. In the final race of the day, there was a slight delay as the wind fell below the limit. Alinghi were off their foils when the call was made that the race would get under way a couple of minutes later and tried to use their delay card too.

However, they tried to play it too late and were instead hit with a boundary penalty.

They did well to recover and get into the starting gate to challenge the British, but the penalty meant they had to start behind and they weren’t able to overcome that early deficit.

Results

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy) beat American Magic (United States) by 7sec

Ineos Britannia (United Kingdom) beat Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland) by 2min 5sec

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli beat American Magic by 18sec

Ineos Britannia beat Alinghi Red Bull Racing by 1min 37sec

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Ineos Britannia lead their respective best-of-nine series’ 2-0

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.