French bow out

It was a day of tie-breaks and heartbreaks as the Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup drew to a close. For INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, it was unbridled joy as they secured the top spot in the Challenger standings after a dramatic race-off with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, whilst for Orient Express Racing Team, the late Challenger from France, unfortunately their regatta is over after a loss to the British.

With so many permutations at the start of the day, all eyes were on the winds in Barcelona as a building southerly thermal filtered up the Mediterranean and produced just enough to get racing underway. From the very start, INEOS Britannia looked sharp with Sir Ben Ainslie’s team dispatching the French, and thus closing down immediately one of the day’s permutations, after a runaway race where Orient Express Racing Team did their level best to come back into late on. The British showed composure to cross the line after six legs with a 71-second winning delta.

French bow out

French bow out

French bow out

French bow out

French bow out