Holders of the America's Cup «» Oracle Team USA did not participate in the third day of qualifying matches. The five contenders for the main event trophy had the opportunity to close the gap to the Americans, who had won all but one of the previous qualifying heats and were leading the final table with five points.
Groupama Team France beat Land Rover BAR in their first match against Great Britain, taking advantage of Ben Ainslie's team's unfortunate turn at the third mark. It is the Frenchmen's second win in qualifying. «On Sunday they managed to sensationally beat one of the favourites of the America's Cup», the Swedes Artemis Racing.
The Swedes, having taken the lead at the start, were forced to concede two boat lengths to their rivals due to a penalty for crossing the start line earlier. However, they managed to overtake the New Zealanders.
The leaders changed hands a few times during the race, but at the final mark the judges gave Artemis another penalty for not giving enough room to manoeuvre. The Swedes were first to finish, but because of the penalty the victory went to the Kiwis.
«We are still in shock about what happened," commented Artemis skipper Nathan Outteridge. - 'As soon as I saw the light signal I knew what had happened, by the time I made my decision we were already on the line. We all thought we had given them enough room, and I still hold that opinion».
The judges' decision gave ETNZ their fourth win out of a possible five in the qualifying series, tying them with Oracle.
«We are confident that we can beat anyone, including Oracle Team USA, but since they are already in the final, we need to beat everyone else first»," said New Zealand skipper Peter Burling.
Recall that Emirates Team New Zealand lost their duel with the Americans.
In the last race on Monday SoftBank Team Japan, having only one victory on account, managed to win one more point against Groupama Team France. Dean Barker's team controlled the race from start to finish, starting with a 10-second lead and finishing with a big lead of 2 minutes 34 seconds.
