The performance of the day came from Desafío which beat Luna Rossa, one of the "Big Four" teams.

The Spanish team started 8 seconds ahead of the Italians but with a penalty and managed to increase their lead in the first leg by an additional 14 seconds. When rounding the first mark, the spinnaker of ITA-86 broke, giving Desafío Español 2007 the opportunity to increase their lead and start the third leg with an advantage of almost a minute.

During the third leg they also decided to offload their penalty. Despite gaining half a minute, Luna Rossa could not catch the Spanish team that finished the race half a minute ahead of the Italians.

Earlier, the best match of the first flight was the duel between the Defender Alinghi and Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team. After a very good start (thanks to the new starting helmsman Jes Gram-Hansen), the Italians sailed a very strong first lap of the course, staying close to the Defender the entire time, and then rolling past Alinghi to windward on the first run to lead through the leeward gate.

In the end, the might of Alinghi prevailed, but Italian skipper Vasco Vascotto fought right to the finish, with his team supporting him with some outstanding boat handling as the boats gybed back and forth in front of the finishing line. Notwithstanding the result, this would have to be considered a very encouraging race for the ‘Latin Rascals’ who sailed extremely well.

The rest of the races were as expected and the favourites didn’t have too much trouble in dispatching the "little" teams.

Flight 3 Results

BMW Oracle def. Team Germany (2'10'')
Victory Challenge def. Shosholoza (2'19'')
Team NZ def. Areva Challenge (1'29'')
Luna Rossa def. +39 Challenge (1'08'')
China Team lost to Desafío (DNF)
Alinghi def. Mascalzone (0'08'')

Flight 4 Results

Victory lost to Team NZ (1'39'')
Team Germany def. Shosholoza (0'21'')
Areva Challenge lost to BMW Oracle (1'09'')
+39 Challenge lost to Alinghi (1'16'')
Mascalzone def. China Team (2'05'')
Luna Rossa lost to Desafío Español (0'34'')