Oracle Team USA rallied to edge Emirates Team New Zealand Saturday as the 35th America’s Cup got underway with two wins for two-time defending champions Oracle and a collision involving Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR.
The drama unfolded under picture-book skies on Bermuda’s Great Sound, where near gale-force winds had prevented the scheduled start on Friday.
For the first time the defending champions are competing in the qualifiers, and Team USA didn’t disappoint.
They delivered the first of two thumpings handed out to Groupama Team France before taking on New Zealand in a rematch of the 2013 America’s Cup — when the US outfit won eight straight races to seal one of the biggest comeback triumphs in sport.
Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill caught New Zealand as they rounded the mark into the penultimate leg and went on to win by six seconds.
After the first day of round-robin qualifiers Team USA were tied atop the standings with Britain’s Land Rover BAR, both on three points.
The British syndicate came into the qualifiers with two bonus points from the America’s Cup World Series, from which Team USA brought one point.
But after a victory over Sweden’s Artemis Racing the day ended badly for Ainslie’s BAR.
They were penalized for a scary pre-start collision with SoftBank Team Japan and with visible damage to one hull finished 48 seconds behind the Japanese in the final race of the day.
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