Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti held on to their healthy lead in the Mixed Multihull, despite having their weakest day in Marseille so far.

They opened with yet another race win, before clocking two consecutive sixth place finishes in the penultimate day of the Opening Series.

Argentina’s Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco moved up a spot to second overall with their most consistent day of racing, ending with back-to-back second spots.

New Zealand’s Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson came second in the opening race of the day, but a ninth in race nine saw them drop behind the Argentinian pair, though both crews sit on the same amount of points (28).

Tita said: “It was tough conditions, but we managed to survive and we’re still at the top of the results so we’re happy about that. We gained some points overall so we’re happy about that. We’re going to stay focused on tomorrow and will keep pushing.

“We’ve done a great job improving our performance in the light wind which is really good.”

Bosco said: “We had a really good day and we’re really happy. The conditions were tricky and really unstable, but we managed well, so we keep pushing.”

Majdalani said: “If we have more of these conditions, things can shake up quite a lot. If the wind is stronger, Italy are really, really strong, but if its light, anything can happen.”

Wilkinson said: “We had a solid day. There were much lighter conditions, but we’re happy with how we’re sailing. We’ll take it race by race. We’re really enjoying it and after a slow lead in it’s nice to go racing.”

Dawson said: “We got off the start line in good shape and had clear lanes.”