America's Cup: Team New Zealand beat BAR; advance to Louis Vuitton challenger final

Team New Zealand won race five. Photo / Ricardo Pinto

Two days ago Team New Zealand were on their side in the Bermuda water but today they sunk Ben Ainslie's America's Cup campaign with two race wins to advance to the Louis Vuitton challenger final.

In a staggering turn around following Wednesday's scary crash - combined by the impressive work by the offshore crew to get the boat back into fine shape and some superb racing by helmsman Peter Burling's - Team New Zealand surged into the next round by winning their semifinal series 5-2.

There was a minor hiccup when BAR won race six with a near perfect display but Burling bounced back from that defeat with a strong start to finish effort in race seven to bookend the day with two great performances.

For Ben Ainslie, who was tactician for Oracle Team USA at the last America's Cup, his BAR campaign and all the British pounds that was pumped into their team's hopes of finally claiming the Auld Mug since losing it to America in 1851 have come to naught.

Team New Zealand will face either Artemis or Dean Barker's Team Japan in the final - with the winner advancing to face Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup final.

Artemis look the likely opponent after sweeping Japan in all three races today to take a 4-3 lead. They will return to the water tomorrow but with strong wins forecast there is a chance sailing will be cancelled with Artemis advancing.

In race seven Burling was perfect at the pre-race start, unlike the previous race, and Team New Zealand were never challenged as they flew around the course to win by 46 seconds.

In the opening race of the day, Burling produced a stunning comeback after nearly giving away the race in the pre-start after experiencing control problems.

Burling was heard saying 'take it easy' after having an issue with the control system in a similar spot to where the boat crashed two days earlier. BAR raced across the start line at near top speed while Team New Zealand were several hundred metres behind.

We are through into the #LVAC Finals!Thanks for a great battle @LandRoverBAR ! #etnz pic.twitter.com/WjDQtMU3TX

— EmiratesTeamNZ (@EmiratesTeamNZ) June 8, 2017

But TNZ slowly etched away at BAR's lead before eventually passing Ben Ainslie on penultimate leg in a tense finish to win the race by 31 seconds.

Burling sailed and his crew sail a near perfect race and trailing BAR by 26 seconds at the first mark. Burling said they showed that the boat is in top condition after being worked out around the clock since Wednesday's crash.

"Full credit to the shore team and everyone else for getting us out here. The boat was definitely at 100 per cent. I think we showed that with the way we ground them down."

"We obviously had some issues in the prestart there, I think we took sailing away to a whole new level," Burling said of giving BAR a clear 200 metre head start.

The comeback win is yet another impressive outing by the 26-year-old Burling as his status in America's Cup racing begins to grow.

Despite giving up a clear lead at the start he showed total calm before astutely taking control of the race by attacking Ainslie in some pure match-racing. Burling slowly cut the lead down to just 11 seconds at the third mark before taking the lead on the fifth leg.

From there Ainslie couldn't even fire a return shot as Team New Zealand sailed clear to the finish line.

Ainslie and his crew bounced back in race six, leading from the start and making the most of some early mistakes by Team New Zealand to win by 20 seconds.

But yet again Burling showed his ability that nothing gets to him by outgunning Ainslie in the race seven pre-start to secure New Zealand's place in the challenger final.