Prada shook off its opening day frustrations Friday, claiming both fleet races in dominating fashion at the America’s Cup World Series stop in Venice.

Prada’s Luna Rossa – Swordfish boat took the day’s opening race while Prada’s Luna Rossa – Piranha captured the day’s second fleet race.

“Today has been a great day for us, with two victories,” said team skipper Max Sirena. “But we want to keep our feet on the ground and look ahead to the next two days. There are still many points to be gained and we need to approach it in the right way.”

While conditions were perfect for racing, with moderate 8-10 knot sea breezes, the challenge came from the narrow, restricted race course, which was shoe-horned into the canal.

Boats raced in close quarters, disrupting each other’s’ wind. Prada used quick starts in both races to get out in clean air and never look back.

“The boats are so physically taxing on the guys, it is literally a flogging,” said Kiwi skipper Dean Barker. “You can’t but help but feel sorry for the other guys. At the end of the race their tongues are hanging out and they’re completely spent.”

Loick Peyron’s Energy Team retained their position at the top of the Fleet Racing leaderboard, but not without some anxious moments.

The team was in last place at the first two marks of the second race, before making a spectacular comeback on the next leg of the course to round in second place, passing seven other boats.

For a second day, the San Francisco-based Oracle team struggled with Jimmy Spithill’s third place finished in Race 2 the best effort for both boats on the day.

Both our boats are struggling at the moment,” said skipper Darren Bundock. “We have done a lot of crew changes, trying to change things around and move some of the guys who'll be on the AC72 involved in some of the World Series racing. We're obviously paying for that at the moment.”

Bundock was also critical of the race circuit layout in the canal.

“Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. It was a tough day,” said Bundock. “Lots of tacks, lots of jibes, getting bounced around a lot – it was a really tight course. You couldn't really stretch your legs at all. You couldn't get away from other boats and when you were in the middle of pack, you just got bounced around.”

Racing continues tomorrow with two more fleet races and the semifinal round of the match racing championship.