Land Rover BAR, led by Olympic great Sir Ben Ainslie, drew first blood at the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth at the weekend.

The British team edged Emirates Team New Zealand for the title after organisers cancelled yesterday’s final two races due to strong gales, depriving fans of a potentially exciting finish with points doubled.

Oracle Team USA, the defender, rounded off the podium.

Land Rover BAR posted a first and a second on Saturday, which was just enough to hold off a new-look Team New Zealand and seize early pole position in the America’s Cup qualifying preliminaries.

“It’s a good start in trying to bring the trophy home,” Ainslie, the multiple King Edward VII Golf Cup winner, said. “We were just delighted to be able to perform well in front of our home crowd.

“It’s a shame we weren’t able to race, but it was absolutely the right decision. I don’t think it takes the gloss off the event for us.”

Saturday’s conditions resulted in multiple lead changes and huge gains and losses on each leg as teams tried their best to cope with sailing in ever-changing winds.

Land Rover BAR could not have asked for a better start, coming from behind to win the opening race, sparking jubilant scenes among the home fans.

The British challenger snatched the lead for good from Team New Zealand on the second downwind run to the leeward gate as the gamble to hoist the gennnaker for the leg paid huge dividends.

“To win the first race in front of the home crowd was probably one of the best moments of my sailing career,” Ainslie said. “I have never seen so many people turn up for a sailing event, so we are just really honoured as the home team to have that support. “

Ainslie and his team got off to a wobbly start in the second race after an early gybe on the first run put them on the wrong side of a wind shift.

“We had to make a very tough call on the first downwind leg and got it wrong which put us back in the fleet,” Ainslie said.

The British team quickly bounced back, however, working their way through the fleet where they eventually overtook Groupama Team France for second on the final run, which effectively clinched the title after the regatta was cut in half.

“Giles Scott, our tactician, did a wonderful job and the guys worked incredibly hard sailing the boat so it was a really good team effort,” Ainslie said.

Team New Zealand finished runners-up with a first and third to their credit to leave Glenn Ashby, the team sailing director and skipper, happy with his day’s work.

“The racing here has been fantastic and we are thoroughly pleased with being able to mix it up with some of the bigger teams that have been out on the water for the last 15 to 18 months,” the multiple world champion said.

Jimmy Spithill, the Oracle Team USA skipper, was also satisfied with the team’s first outing which saw them post a second and fourth to finish third overall.

“The racing was great, we had some really great stuff out there,” he said. “We saw a lot of lead changes, six competitive team and different winners to each race, so the level is very, very high.”

Softbank Team Japan finished fourth, followed by Team France and Artemis Racing, who will host the next America’s Cup World Series event in Gothenburg, Sweden between August 28 to 30.