Despite smashing into the water after going airborne for a brief moment, Luna Rossa have held on to take a commanding 2-0 series lead against American Magic with a second win in Auckland this afternoon.
Another strong pre-start from Jimmy Spithill saw the Italians race out to another early lead but unlike race one earlier today where they cruised to the win, American Magic were given a brief hint of a comeback thanks to a bit of chaos early on.
After forging a 400 metre lead over the first two legs, Luna Rossa looked set to push that even further as they rounded the bottom mark.
However, like the Americans earlier today, a gust of wind caught the Italian AC75 as they made their move and took the boat airborne.
Luna Rossa then slammed into the water and lost a lot of speed but managed to recover quickly and get back on their foils, losing only 150 metres-worth of their lead in the chaos.
The moment didn't appear to get to Spithill or the Italians as they went back to pushing out to pushing out their lead, which was helped by another significant touchdown from the Americans on the sixth leg.
Despite being back out on the water, Dean Barker and the Americans appear to still have some issues from their capsize almost two weeks ago with the Kiwi helmsman struggling to control Patriot at times.
The touchdown saw the lead balloon out to 1800 metres, leaving Spithill and company to cruise to their second win which eventually came with a three minute and seven seconds margin.
The results means Luna Rossa enters the weekend up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, meaning another two-win outing tomorrow would see them march on to the Prada Cup finals to face INEOS Team UK in two weeks.
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