Louis Vuitton Cup, Luna Rossa loses fifth race: semifinal 4-1

Setback for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, which loses a race to American Magic. The point count is now 4 to 1 for Luna Rossa, with two match points to be played next Wednesday. Alinghi Red Bull Racing also beat its direct opponent Ineos Britannia in a race in which the wind collapsed. In short: a bad day for the favourites who seemed to be heading for an easy win in the Louis Vuitton Cup final.

There was little wind, distributed in patches over the course that was all to be interpreted. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in her race, the second of the day, had made a strong start, immediately taking the lead and controlling the Americans. But the race was always open with a continuous exchange of positions, close encounters and authentic match racing. It was precisely the eagerness to be in the hand-to-hand encounter that led Checco Bruni to a less than fair assessment of position. In practice, what he did was to try to force an 'inside buoy' pass to get his opponent into trouble. Instead, Luna ended up in trouble, falling off the foils and never being able to get back into the race. For the Americans it was a great gift and the hero of the day was thirty-seven year old Lucas Calabrese, who came on board to replace skipper Paul Goodison and proved to be a quick learner in communicating with the other helmsman Tom Slingsby.

After the two races raced at the lower wind limit, the race committee tried for a long time to get the other races started before sending the boats back to base, but the wind was always modest and did not allow it. Committee Chairman Iain Murray decided to postpone the races not run today until next Wednesday.