Gritty Ainslie takes spoils in America’s Cup thriller

Sir Ben Ainslie (left), and his Land Rover BAR crew lead the fleet on day three of the America’s Cup World Series event off Portsmouth, England on July 23. (AP)

LONDON, July 24, (AFP): Ben Ainslie and his British Land Rover BAR team were forced to fend off a last-race challenge from holders Oracle Team USA before claiming overall victory in the America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth on Sunday.

The win also takes the home team to the top of the 2016 series leaderboard.

An exciting day of action at Southsea featured the high performance AC45 foiling catamarans unleashing their breathtaking speeds and closed with a nail-biting finale where Spithill and Ainslie, Oracle teammates at the last America’s Cup in 2013, locked horns in fierce opposition.

Spithill nailed the start and led the fleet to the end, but Ainslie kept the pressure on and crossed the line in second, which gave him the overall win by a single point.

From the opening leg in the first race, Ainslie looked comfortable in the stronger breezes in the Solent, where Land Rover BAR train daily, and made the most of another great start by speeding off to the first mark at a rapid 25 knots.

A little over 12 minutes later, the race was over with Ainslie crossing the line to the sound of excited applause from the massive British crowds, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The resounding win boosted their score by 20 points and extended their lead at the top of the table to five points over Oracle.

But a comeback by the Americans in the second race, in which Spithill turned on the aggression in the stronger winds and upped his speed, saw them claim a 10-second win.

It closed the gap between Oracle and the British and meant the result hinged entirely on the final race. Oracle started well and kept Ainslie successfully at arm’s length.

Going into Sunday, it was the British and French team Groupama Team France who had dominated all the action on the water.

But Franck Cammas struggled to master the bigger breeze and dropped down the rankings to post two disappointing last places and a fifth to finish in fifth place overall.

Emirates Team New Zealand, series leaders before Portsmouth but without their star sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, dropped down to fourth. What a day.”

Sunday’s win was the 48th of his career and fifth of the season.

Until Sunday he had shared the record for Hungary GP wins with seven times champion Michael Schumacher.

“I grew up watching Michael so to have a similar number, and now one more than he had here, is incredible,” said Hamilton.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished third for Red Bull after pushing the Mercedes pair hard enough at one point for the champions to tell Hamilton to pick up the pace.

Ferrari’s four times world champion Sebastian Vettel, also a previous winner in Hungary, finished fourth after sounding off over the team radio about slower cars holding him up as he lapped them.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen held off Ferrari’s feisty Kimi Raikkonen for fifth. The Finn had started 14th but a long first stint saw him challenging the Dutchman.

The battle between the pair provided a moment of excitement in an otherwise uneventful race, with Raikkonen clipping the back of Verstappen’s car and damaging his front wing in an attempt to pass the 18-yearold.

Fernando Alonso was the sole surviving McLaren in seventh.

McLaren’s hopes of a strong result on the back of their best qualifying performance since renewing their engine partnership with Honda were dashed early on, with Jenson Button falling down the order with hydraulics problems.

The 2009 world champion also collected a drive-through penalty for a breach of radio rules before finally retiring late in the race. 83rd of his career. “I don’t know exactly how many (races) I have left, that’s changing every day. But, hopefully, with whatever we have left, we can have the same amount of success we’ve had here.”

Busch has been virtually unbeatable on Indy’s 2.5-mile oval all weekend.

He posted the fastest practice times in both the Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series on Friday, won the poles, captured the first of two heat races to establish the rest of the starting order and put himself in position second straight sweep of the two races in Indy.

No NASCAR driver has ever won both poles and both races here.

The only prize Busch didn’t get his claim Saturday was the $100,000 dashfor-cash prize, which he was ineligible for.

That payout went to fifth-place finisher Justin Allgaier — who was the best of the non-Cup regulars. Allgaier said the thermometer in his car reached 137 degrees. How dominant has Busch been? The Joe Gibbs Racing star held off two former Brickyard 400 winners and one, Harvick, couldn’t even catch the leader after taking new tires during the final caution period, which extended the race to 63 laps.