GB1 wins Race 7 as Luna Rossa DQ shakes up Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta standings

Sunday's closing session of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta in Sardinia produced the sharpest racing of the entire week. GB1 claimed their first victory of the regatta, Luna Rossa's Women and Youth were disqualified from the opening race after failing to take their penalty turns, and second place in the overall standings was decided by two seconds at the finish.

Conditions on the Gulf of Angels were about as good as the AC40 fleet could have asked for. A 10-knot sea breeze, flat water, and clear sunshine over Cagliari made for near-ideal racing after Saturday's rougher going. Sunday felt like a welcome gift after the difficulties of the previous day.

The regatta leaders found themselves in serious trouble almost from the outset. Luna Rossa's Women and Youth, helmed by Marco Gradoni with Margherita Porro, Maria Giubilei and Giovanni Santi aboard, carried two penalties into the first leg following confusion over their obligations at the start. The umpires watched and waited for the crew to respond with penalty turns. They did not. The disqualification was called. For a team that had spent most of the week at or near the front, winning three races and finishing outside the top two only once, it was a brutal way to open the final day.

GB1's week had, until Sunday, been defined by mechanical misfortune rather than racing. A traveller problem on Friday and a hydraulic failure on Saturday had ended both of Dylan Fletcher's days before they had properly begun, sending the team ashore on each occasion without recording a result. The shore crew had the boat ready by Sunday morning, and Fletcher brought it to the line with something to prove. His team delivered.

They got away cleanly from the gun, found pace and clear air early, and never allowed a serious challenge to develop at the front. La Roche-Posay Racing Team, led by Quentin Delapierre with Olympic champions Diego Botín and Florian Trittel in the boat, made the most of a left shift that had been flagged before racing began and pushed into second, but GB1 managed their advantage through every leg and crossed the line first. It was the crew's first bullet of the series, earned by a team that had barely featured on the course before Sunday.

"A big thank you to the shore crew for getting the boat back on the water," Fletcher said after the race. "It just feels really nice to finally show what we can do."

The fight for the remaining podium positions was direct and physical. Luna Rossa's senior team, with three-times Cup winner Peter Burling driving alongside Ruggero Tita, Umberto Molineris and Vittorio Bissaro, went bow to bow with La Roche-Posay through the middle legs. The Italians took second at the line by two seconds.

The two Emirates Team New Zealand entries crossed fourth and fifth in what amounted to a formation finish. For the last four legs, the top five had maintained almost identical spacing, with ETNZ Senior sitting around 31 seconds off the leader and the ETNZ Women and Youth crew a further seven seconds back.

Athena Pathway, whose Race 5 win had been one of the highlights of the week, finished sixth. Tudor Team Alinghi crossed seventh.

FLEET RACE 7 RESULTS + OVERALL STANDINGS – paste into WordPress Classic Editor > Text tab

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The disqualification of Luna Rossa's Women and Youth altered the complexion of the overall standings ahead of Fleet Race 8. A team that had looked beyond reach for much of the regatta now faced a different kind of pressure heading into the final race of qualifying.

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