Rod Davis, at the helm of Luna Rossa ITA-74 for the start of the match against Alinghi SUI-64, defended the starboard side and the two boats crossed the starting line evenly.
Luna Rossa tacked on to port almost immediately and headed for the right hand side of the race course.
Francesco de Angelis tacked again to try and get close to Alinghi in hopes of forcing the Swiss boat back to the left.
Alinghi had an edge in upwind speed, however and was able to gain a couple of boat lengths, to cross ahead of Luna Rossa claim the right hand side of the course.
With only one third of the first beat to complete, Luna Rossa sailed into a favourable wind shift to the left and was able to close the gap on her opponent.
The two boats approached the port lay-line of the
top mark with Alinghi leading by one boat length.
Coutts rounded the first mark 17 seconds ahead of Luna Rossa.
In the first part of the downwind run de Angelis headed for the right, while Coutts sailed to the left.
Luna Rossa gybed to chase Coutts and try to get on his wind. Luna Rossa showed good pace and towards the end of the run she was very close to Alinghi.
Coutts, however, defended his position and was able to round the bottom mark with a lead of 9 seconds over the Italians.
In the second beat de Angelis opted for the right hand side of the course. Alinghi chose not to cover and sailed to the opposite side.
Halfway through the beat Luna Rossa tacked and crossed behind by three boat lengths. Coutts defends his position and extended Alinghi's lead to 37 seconds at the third mark.
The second run downwind was a close copy of the first. Luna Rossa gybed early and sailed to the right hand side of the course, while Coutts kept to
the left. Then the two boats converged, with Luna Rossa gaining on Alinghi. At the end of the run Coutts was still in the lead by 13 seconds.
On the final beat, Alinghi consolidated her lead. At the last mark rounding Luna Rossa trailed the Swiss by 36 seconds.
On their final run ITA-74 showed good speed and was able to close the gap but not quite enough to overtake Alinghi.
A notable feature of the two quarterfinal races between the Russell Coutts-skippered Alinghi and Prada has been the ability of Italian boat ITA-74 to come back downwind.
Prada today cut Alinghi's lead on all three downwind legs, lopping 28sec off SUI-64's margin on the run to the finish line.
Alinghi pitman Josh Belsky acknowledged the Italians' superiority with the wind behind them, but said for a boat to be able to pass downwind it needed to be "a lot faster" than the boat in front.
"It's one thing to catch up and get the overlap, and another to roll them," he said.
Prada appear to be faster downwind now than they were in the round robins, but the weather in the past two days had also favoured the trailing boat downwind, enabling it to bring the pressure down the course with it.
Going upwind Alinghi had been able to rebuild their lead over Prada so far, Belsky said.
The Alinghi afterguard yesterday directed a few tough words at their crew, but Belsky said things had gone better today.
The first race back after the lull, which included several days when it had been too windy to go sailing, had left the crew a little rusty yesterday, he said.
Today, the crew work had been fine.
"Every day you go racing you get a little bit better."
Winning margin: 00.08
Alinghi leads the best-of-seven series 2-0.
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Racing schedule, results and standings
Rod Davis, at the helm of Luna Rossa ITA-74 for the start of the match against Alinghi SUI-64, defended the starboard side and the two boats crossed the starting line evenly.
Luna Rossa tacked on to port almost immediately and headed for the right hand side of the race course.
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