The Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing yacht claimed a vital win over the French Orient Express Racing Team vessel on the first day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup second round robin in Barcelona on Tuesday.

It was a vital win for the Swiss, who were winless in last week's first round robin at a stage where one of the six competing boats in the competition will be eliminated on Sunday.

The Swiss took advantage of an early error from the French to open an early unassailable lead which they held with few problems.

"It's a great way for us to start for the week," said Maxime Bachelin, port helmsman of Alinghi Red Bull Racing on a day when stormy weather interrupted the racing.

"We like these shifty conditions and heavy wind, so I think we did what we really wanted to do. We were quite down last week after the results; now it's a good reset and we're very happy with the performance of the team on the boat handling," he added.

The second race of the day saw the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli yacht from Italy beat the reigning America's Cup champions, Emirates Team New Zealand, in a race that saw a lightning bolt flash into the sea a couple of hundred meters ahead of the Italians.

The lightning saw the racing halted for safety reasons, although Emirates Team New Zealand were disqualified for heading to face off the course.

"It's just another great race against the Kiwis, we expect nothing less when we're going against those guys and unfortunately for us that'll be the last one for a while but let's see what happens in the rest of the rounds now against the Challengers," said Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli afterwards.

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