LVT: Off Day for Azzurra

After a thrilling rise through the rankings in Round Robin 1, Italian team Azzurra hit a bad patch in today’s first match races of Round Robin 2 in the Louis Vuitton Trophy – Nice (7th to 22nd November 2009)


Azzurra. Image copyright Steffano Gattini/Azzurra.

by Jill Campbell

The crew, led by skipper Francesco Bruni, lost both of their races against TFS – PagesJaunes (FRA) and All4One (FRA-GER). The team sits behind leaders Emirates Team New Zealand in the provisional standings, and are on equal points with Team Origin (GBR). The second Round Robin has been shortened due to time constraints and the eight teams have been divided into two halves based on the Round Robin 1 standings. The top four teams will race each of the bottom four teams once.

Azzurra vs TFS PagesJaunes: The French team skippered by Bertrand Pace gained their first win of the competition opting for the right side of the course from the start and leading Azzurra around the marks to finish 1 minute and 45 seconds ahead.


Azzurra trails TFS - Pages Jaunes. Image copyright Steffano Gattini/Azzurra.

Azzurra vs All4One: The French-German alliance helmed by Sebastien Col took the lead on the first Windward leg to round the top mark 39 seconds ahead. Azzurra was unable to recover and crossed the finish line 46 seconds behind All4One.

“We made a lot of small mistakes over both of the matches, it would have been better to concentrate them in one race but unfortunately it didn’t go that way. We have lost two points but we must remained focused on the next regattas because we are still in the game.” Commented Bruni after racing.

Tactician Tommaso Chieffi agreed: “In the first match the start was better on the right side of the line, the French did well to gain that side and protect it for the entire race. In the second match we didn’t get a great start and All4One protected their position very well. An off day for us but everything is still to decide over the next few days.”

Azzurra has no scheduled races Sunday.


Azzurra trails downwind. Image copyright Steffano Gattini/Azzurra.

Saturday's Races

RR1
Synergy beat Bmw Oracle: 00.14

RR2
Emirates Team New Zealand beat All4One
TFS Pages Jaunes beat Azzurra
TeamOrigin beat TFS Pages Jaunes
All4One beat Azzurra

Provisional Standings Wins/Losses
ETNZ 7/1
TEAMORIGIN, 6/2
AZZURRA, 6/3
ARTEMIS 3/4
SYNERGY, 3/4
BMW ORACLE, 3/4
ALL4ONE, 3/6
TFS PAGES JAUNES, 1/8

Azzurra
Louis Vuitton Trophy