Bertelli fired Peterson. This means many things.

1. either Peterson was in bed with the competition. But let us assume that is improbable.
2. After having won the first 13 races of the 2000 edition, Bertelli simply did not like the result of race 1. 42 seconds delay is not a lot, but is can be huge: Luna Rossa did not appear to have any speed advantage. Worse it could have a disadvantage. When a fast boat is 80% of the job (recall Black Magic in Y2K - they only ran - and won hands down - 5 match races; they were just too fast), the designer is the first to get the blame.
3. The chance of Luna Rossa making to the America's Cup ar dim at best.

The remainder of the article will be posted after the match against Stars&Stripes. We said it would have been key, but never imagined the wieght it would have had. Imagine: LR loses and the entire press will say "They're gone!".

In any instance, Bertelli will get a *lot* of press ink over this. Sound like the begining of a paperazzi melodrama to last a month or four...

The races themselves Brought some drama. Alinghi and OneWorld had a wonderful battle all the way through, although the first windward leg saw OneWorld demonstrate superior speed.

Mascalzone Latino predictably lost to Oracle, but by a narrower margin than in the first race. This boat is visibly slower.

Le Défi, showed good sailing and bad luck by blowing a spinnaker on the first run.

Luna Rossa, the result expected given the day's previous news, lost by 35 seconds. This time Rod Davis at the helm won the start, but LR lost their advantage as S&S tacked to port and seemed to benefit from the wind picking up on thier side of the course.

Whatever the case, LR is not the silver bullet of 99-2000. The American boats have been built for stronger winds. Prada, obsessed by having been whipped in the AC in weak, even non-existent winds of the Kiwi summer, seems to have laid all its chips on a solution for calm breezes.

But will such a stretegy allow LR to come out of the quarter-finals?