Desafío Español won both its races on Thursday to climb higher up the leaderboard, while BMW ORACLE Racing remains undefeated at the Louis Vuitton Cup. Near the top of the table, Italy's Luna Rossa Challenge beat Emirates Team New Zealand to remain in the top three on the points table.
Racing conditions were excellent with an Easterly wind of 10 knots blowing across the race areas. The conditions were gusty and shifty, leaving plenty of passing lanes for the tacticians to discover. And the Umpires were busy on Thursday as well, with penalties the deciding factor in a number of races.
The first match of flight 8 saw United Internet Team Germany against Desafío Español pick up an unexpected penalty. Areva Challenge and Victory Challenge provided dramatic action in their match. Magnus Holmberg outgunned the French and was just able to carry out a penalty turn in time to squeeze across the finishing line ahead of the French. The duel between Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Team Shosholoza was no less tense. Just out from the finish, Shosholoza ripped another spinnaker and could only watch as Mascalzone Latino sailed on to victory. +39 failed to threaten BMW Oracle Racing and China Team did not start its match against Emirates Team New Zealand, after returning to shore with technical difficulties.
In flight 9, on the final run, Emirates Team New Zealand edged ahead of Luna Rossa, but their margin wasn't large enough to complete a penalty turn, so they finished 48 seconds astern. BMW ORACLE overtook the Italians, showing their greater horsepower with a 1:38 win. With no wins in Round Robin One, +39 Challenge put up a strong showing against Team Shosholoza but were ultimately unable to get past Shosholoza who won by 26 seconds. Victory Challenge led Desafío Español out of the start, but was outpaced by the Spanish who put two more points on the board winning by 35 seconds.
Louis Vuitton Cup - Round Robin One - Provisional Leaderboard
01 BMW ORACLE Racing (USA 98)
02 Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 92)
03 Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94)
03 Desafío Español 2007 (ESP 97)
05 Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia (ITA 99)
06 Victory Challenge (SWE 96)
07 Team Shosholoza (RSA 83)
08 Areva Challenge (FRA 93)
09 United Internet Team Germany (GER 89)
10 +39 Challenge (ITA 85)
11 China Team (CHN 95)
