Vuitton Cup, Luna Rossa beats Orient Express and flies to the semi-finals

For Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli another great day in the sea of Barcelona: in the only match in which she was the protagonist against Orient Express she won with agility, despite some troubles at the beginning. The point is worth the mathematical qualification to the semi-final phase of the Louis Vuitton Cup that starts on 14 September: she is among the four that will enter the knockout phase. "Every regatta is worth gold for us to move forward and improve," says trimmer Andrea Tesei. "We are happy to have filled a box but nothing changes in our mentality. We want to win the Round Robin because there is an advantage in winning it." The advantage is to be able to choose the opponent, which is almost never an easy choice anyway. Checco Bruni says: "The boats' performances are very very similar and it can happen that on a bad day you lose the point if you make mistakes. In short, whoever sails better wins".

In reality, the French of Orient Express did not put up much of a fight: "It was a difficult day," continued Checco Bruni, "with the wind opening up in patches on the course. It helped that the French took a penalty early on. They made us a little worried and the risk was to fall off the foils. With wind like that there is always a balance between looking for pressure and controlling the opponent. Falling off the foils cost the race to the French, who were almost beating Emirates Team New Zealand in the last race of the day, after beating Ineos Brittania. The eventual victory of the French would have made Luna Rossa's supremacy in the special ranking, which does not count for the selections but does count for the supremacy in the Round Robins, a little quieter.

The bloody encounter between Ineos Britannia and American Magic saw the Americans prevail. And the equally important one between the Americans and Alinghi Red Bull Racing saw the Swiss prevail, a decisive point for them to stay ahead of the French and secure a place in the semi-finals.

For Luna Rossa until Sunday - Friday is rest day - there are three matches: against American Magic, Ineos Britannia and Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

Andrea Tesei again: "There is definitely a good harmony aboard Luna Rossa and we have developed a playbook that works. Certain manoeuvres have become automatisms. Yesterday we actually left a lot of metres on the course even though we seem to have sailed very clean, we made some small mistakes and we want to improve".