With five wins from six races, Team New Zealand sit comfortably in second in the America's Cup qualifying series.

Team New Zealand secured their spot in the America's Cup semifinals with victory over Artemis Racing on day four of the qualifying series in Bermuda.

Backing up their controversial win against the Swedish syndicate on the previous day, the Kiwi outfit came from behind to force a penalty at the fifth mark and power away to the finish out on the Great Sound on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time).

The result took Team New Zealand to five wins from six races, placing them second overall on five points, and means they can no longer be the one challenger who falls by the wayside after the completion of the qualifying series.

At worst, Team New Zealand can finish last equal among the five challengers after handing Artemis their fifth loss in seven races.

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RICARDO PINTO/ ACEA 2017 Team NZ trail Artemis in day four racing in the America's Cup qualifying series.

The Swedes would finish on five points if they win their final three races, while the Kiwis would finish on the same number of points if they somehow lost their last four races.

If that unlikely scenario was to play out, Team New Zealand would go through on the tie-breaker after finishing ahead of Artemis in the World Series, which was held in the two years leading up to the Cup regatta itself.

"If there are ties at the end of the round robin phase of racing, the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series standings will be used as the tie breaker," the official America's Cup website says.

SailWorld also indicated Team New Zealand had wrapped up their spot in the semifinals.

The specialist sailing website even believed the Kiwi syndicate had done enough before their fifth win of the qualifying series.

"Emirates Team New Zealand with four wins one loss from Round Robin 1 (the same record as Defender Oracle Team USA) can afford to treat all the racing in Round Robin 2 as practice for the Play-offs without the pressure of having to win races to make the cut," SailWorld said.

Almost certainly, though, it will be the scenarios at the top of the standings and not the bottom that Team New Zealand will be focussing on now.

The top qualifying challenger gets first pick on who of the other three they want to face in the semifinals, which are scheduled to run from June 5-9.

Team New Zealand would get that choice as it stands, with a one point buffer from third-place Britain and a three point advantage over Sweden, Japan and France.

The overall winner of the qualifying series wins a point to take into the actual best-of-15 America's Cup match, should they get that far.

Holders Oracle are also eligible for this bonus point and are on track to claim it with four qualifying races left.



The qualifying series is set to be completed on Sunday, with the challenger semifinals and final both raced in a best-of-nine format.

Today's results

Race 16: NZ beat Sweden by 1m 31s

Race 17: USA beat France by 1m 56s

Race 18: Britain beat Sweden by 30s

America's Cup Qualifiers standings

USA 6 points

New Zealand 5

Britain 4

Sweden 2

Japan 2

France 2

Thursday's race schedule

Japan v France

BAR v NZ

USA v Japan

France v GB