The defeat meant Orient Express finished with one win in eight races against the other challengers and ensured Swiss entry Alinghi Red Bull would finish in the fourth semi-finals berth.
In the second race, Alinghi recorded its third victory of the round as it beat Luna Rossa Prada, a result which ultimately cost the Italians first place in the standings.
The regatta was scheduled to end Sunday, but racing was postponed because of “unstable” weather conditions.
That potentially helped the French, who had come off their foils and plunged nose first into the water in morning practice, suffering unspecified structural problems.
After emergency repairs they just made it to Sunday’s start line, before racing was cancelled.
Yesterday, even after overnight work on the boat, they trailed throughout.
In patchy wind conditions off Barcelona, Orient Express, skippered by Quentin Delapierre, fell behind early and dropped steadily further back over the six legs to finish one minute, 11 seconds behind the British entry.
“All the shore team pushed really hard to win this race today to continue our journey,” said French helmsman Kevin Peponnet. “We are very disappointed because we could not.”
‘Development game’
Britannia’s win combined with Luna Rossa’s loss left the two teams tied atop the challenger standings. They went back out at the end of the day and the British won by 42 seconds to take top seeding and choice of semi-final opponent.
“This is a development game, the America’s Cup,” said British skipper Ben Ainslie. “We started off a little bit rusty.
“Every day we’re sailing the boat we’re getting better. I think we have a quick package.”
Orient Express and fellow strugglers Alinghi are the two boats in the fleet who did not compete in the last America’s Cup regatta in New Zealand in 2021.
Despite having the smallest budget of the six teams, Les Bleus beat Alinghi in their first race. After that, the French suffered one setback after another as they learned to sail a hydrofoil boat.
“Just looking forward to coming back stronger to win this Cup one day,” said Delapierre.
“Putting together this team only one year before and being able to compete against those experienced teams: unbelievable effort.”
In a race that did not count to the Challenger standings, defending champions Emirates New Zealand crushed American Magic by 2min 37sec.
The victory for the Kiwis gave them a psychologically-important first place in the broader Louis Vuitton Cup standings, which include all the races between the six boats.
The semi-finals are scheduled to start on Sept 14. In each, the first boat to five points advances to the first-to-seven challenger final, scheduled to begin on Sept 26.