Luna Rossa Challenge stunned BMW Oracle Racing with a come-from-behind win on the final run to the finish.

Racing was delayed for two hours on Tuesday afternoon and the race officials waited for a light Easterly breeze to fill in and stabilise. When it finally did, conditions were good, with eight to 10 knots of pressure across both race areas.

The match between BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa was expected to be a humdinger of a battle, and so it proved.

Both James Spithill and Chris Dickson nailed perfect, full-speed starts but USA 87 tacked off to the right almost immediately after the gun fired. The American and Italian teams went hunting for better breeze on opposite sides of the course.

When they came back together it was advantage BMW Oracle, who maintained a 10 second lead around the windward mark. Luna Rossa rolled into a gybe-set in search of different – and hopefully better – breeze but the strategy didn’t work as the gap extended to 16 seconds by the leeward gate. The Americans weren’t going to give the Italians a sniff of the lead up the final beat.

However on the final run, the Italians broke away to the left once more and Chris Dickson stuck to his guns on the right. This time Luna Rossa’s strategy worked well. When the boats converged towards the finish it was ITA 86 that emerged ahead, now just metres from the finishing line. Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis went on to claim a brilliant victory.

Emirates Team New Zealand took early control of the match against Shosholoza but the Kiwis just could not shake off the South Africans. By the leeward mark, RSA 83 was only 19 seconds off NZL 84’s lead. The underdogs continued to push the Kiwis, but Dean Barker hung on for a 30-second win.

Alinghi had Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team in all sorts of bother before the start, forcing ITA 77’s starting helmsman Jes Gram-Hansen to seek shelter from the Swiss assault with the help of a spectator boat. In the end, the Danish helm did a good job of escaping Peter Holmberg’s clutches and it was an even start for the two teams. A right-hand shift kept the Italians in the game for a while, but eventually Alinghi proved too powerful and sailed to a relatively untroubled 52-second win.

+39 also had some hairy moments leading up the line when it looked as though Iain Percy would break the start line a fraction too early. Although ITA 59 crossed cleanly, the ageing Italian boat could afford no such errors against Desafío Español who look increasingly comfortable in the brand new ESP 88. It was an easy win for the Spanish.

There were straightforward matches elsewhere on the North course, with Areva Challenge beating China Team and Victory Challenge beating United Internet Team Germany.

The result sees Luna Rossa join Alinghi on eight points, one behind Emirates Team New Zealand and its perfect 9 - 0 record. BMW Oracle is one point further adrift.

Flight 9 - Results

+39 Challenge lost to Desafío (0:36)
Areva Challenge def. China Team (2:58)
Team Germany lost to Victory (0:35)
Team NZ def. Shosholoza (0:30)
Luna Rossa def. BMW Oracle (0:08)
Mascalzone lost to Alinghi (0:52)