Passed the halfway point in Round Robin 2 of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the pressure for the teams is beginning to mount. Closest match of Flight 7 was between Desafio Espanol and Shosholoza. After an aggressive pre-start both boats rolled off the middle of the line with Shosholoza very close to the starboard hip of ESP 97. The decisive move came at the first gybe, when superior boathandling put the Spanish on to the breeze of the slower-gybing South Africans. Gradually the Spanish rolled over the top into a controlling position which they maintained and extended to 47 seconds by the finish. James Spithill steered Luna Rossa aggressively in the pre-start and managed to get a penalty against +39 Challenge. ITA 94 moved away nicely and sailed to an easy victory. Jesper Bank and United Internet Team Germany made the better start against Emirates Team New Zealand but the Kiwis were just too fast as the Germans never managed to capitalise on that early advantage. BMW ORACLE Racing made a perfect pin-end start against Areva Challenge and the Americans raced away to victory, consolidating their position at the top of the leaderboard with Luna Rossa. Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team executed a great pre-start against China Team, bouncing a downspeed CHN 95 off towards the committee boat, and sealing the race from there.
