Louis Vuitton Act 10 - Day 2 - Flight 4: Viva España

The first big upset in Louis Vuitton Act 10 came from the home team, Desafío Español 2007, as they beat Luna Rossa challenge, one of the "Big Four" teams racing with their brand new boat ITA-86. 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.

Given the fact they had launched their brand new ESP-88 just before today's racing started, Desafío Español 2007 had all the reasons to rejoice this evening.

The rest of the races were as expected, with the probable exception of the fight between Shosholoza and United Internet Team Germany. Up to 4pm, both were at the bottom of the score table having lost all their previous races. The South Africans started strongly and had a half a minute lead at the end of the first leg, but good tactics from Jesper Bank and his crew turned the race around and the Germans finished the race 20 seconds ahead.