Ineos Britannia slip to 4-0 deficit in America’s Cup

Great Britain slipped further behind in the America’s Cup as New Zealand moved 4-0 up in Barcelona on Monday.

Race four, rescheduled due to low winds the previous day, saw Sir Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia boat initially neck and neck with Emirates Team New Zealand before the defending champions eked out an advantage and moved three wins away from retaining the trophy.

Ainslie’s crew finished 23 seconds behind, and he said afterwards: “It was a good race.

“We had a good start, got the first cross but they are just going well, they are going really well. So I think for us it’s just a matter of trying to figure out how we can make some of these performance gains to take it to them.

“It’s a good opportunity (on Tuesday) to take a day ashore, try to figure out how we can find some gains.

“Clearly they are going really well. I think we have had our moments, but still there are moments where we are losing a click and I think that’s really the difference.

“We’re going to keep going, we’ll push all the way. They’ve obviously had a strong start but we can still come back from this.”

Trimmer Leigh McMillan said: “I think it’s getting closer and closer every time. It’s not a big step we’ve got to make, just a little one. I think we’ve done a good job so far of making those little steps forward, so one more little click and I think it’s going to swing our way.”

New Zealand skipper Peter Burling described it as an “awesome race”, adding: “Every win on the board is obviously a super nice one. It felt a lot more like a boat race today than the one yesterday.

“It’s nice just to keep marching forward. It feels like we’re improving a lot as a group as we go through these races, and excited to keep pushing forward.”

While New Zealand are hunting their third successive title, a British boat has never won the America’s Cup.

The crew led by Ainslie – who was an America’s Cup winner as part of Team USA in 2013 – are the first British team to take part in the event since 1964, after qualification was secured with a 7-4 win over Italy in the Louis Vuitton Cup series earlier this month.