Ineos Britannia hit out at “inconsistent umpiring” after going 4-0 down to New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup match on Monday, saying they still cannot understand why they were penalised in the pre-start to race three on Sunday and insisting the Kiwis “put the two yachts at risk”.

The penalty, for a port-starboard incident, effectively cost Ineos Britannia any chance they had in that race, and skipper Ben Ainslie was absolutely furious afterwards, questioning the umpire’s call and then swearing at Kiwi commentator Stephen McIvor off-camera for a perceived slight (see below).

The crackling tension continued into Monday morning with Ineos Britannia pre-start coach Ian Williams, head of sailing Giles Scott, and chief umpire Richard Slater meeting to debrief the previous day’s action.

Slater told them it had been a clear-cut decision from the umpires’ perspective; New Zealand were the right-of-way boat and Ineos Britannia did not leave them enough room. Ineos Britannia argued that New Zealand were clearly ‘hunting’ them, changing their course, and leaving them no time to take avoiding action.

As with the equally controversial penalty calls which did not go their way in the Louis Vuitton challenger series final against Luna Rossa, including one race in which Fletcher said “someone might have been killed” had Ineos Britannia not taken avoiding action, the suggestion was these umpires simply have no experience of racing in these enormous AC75 yachts, with 60 knots of closing speeds. Slater did not deny that but pointed out that he was simply enforcing the rules as laid out by the defender and challenger of record.

Whether Slater was right or not, the burning sense of injustice was still emanating from Britain’s sailors after they returned to shore following their fourth successive defeat on Monday.

It had been a much calmer day on the water. Also a more encouraging one from a British perspective, even if it did yield the same outcome.

Ineos Britannia enjoyed their best start of the series, which was one positive. Ainslie’s team decided against engaging in the pre-start, choosing to follow their rivals out to the boundary and then tacking up and away, staying high and hitting the right end of the line with roughly two knots more boat speed. That speed gave Ineos Britannia a slight advantage when the two boats hit the left hand boundary, with New Zealand having to put in two downspeed tacks to wriggle free.

A tight beat ensued, with Ineos Britannia getting their noses in front at the first cross. But it was New Zealand, crucially, who won the favoured right mark at the windward gate. And with fractionally more pressure on the right side heading downwind, New Zealand edged ahead, the umpires dismissing two protests from the British crew, the first for New Zealand changing course towards them, the second for a port-starboard.

From there, it was a classic case of the rich getting richer as New Zealand extended to win by 23 seconds.

Afterwards, Ainslie was outwardly more positive, He insisted his team could “still come back” and was able to joke with McIvor about their spat the previous day. Pundit Glenn Ashby joked in return that the television crew had been playing “rock, paper, scissors” to see who would ask Ainslie the questions.

But it was clear that Ineos Britannia are still silently seething. “We obviously disagree with the umpire,” Fletcher admitted. “We’ve been through it a lot and don’t understand how they came to the conclusion that they did. They [New Zealand] put the yachts at risk at the end of the day.

“I think we’re just looking for consistency. As long as they’re consistent and we can understand how they are using the rules then we’re happy.

“We feel like a lot of calls have gone against us in this Cup and we are not sure why. We have to keep it out of the umpires’ hands and beat them easily on the water.”

Ineos Britannia ‘left themselves open’

That will not be easy. New Zealand are on a roll and skipper Peter Burling delighted in rubbing salt into Britain’s wounds after racing on Monday, saying Ineos Britannia had “left themselves open” to be attacked on Sunday.

“It seemed pretty clear cut to me and the umpires obviously agreed,” he said. “If they leave themselves open we are going to take the opportunities and they have been doing that for quite a while. It’s something we’ve studied and are going to take advantage of.”

After a reserve day on Tuesday, two more races are forecast for Wednesday. Ineos Britannia could potentially be match-point down by the end of that. If that is the case there will be no racing until Saturday at the earliest with organisers decreeing that the series must not finish before the weekend.

Ineos Britannia, though, are adamant they can still come back. Fletcher said the boat was still improving every day, was “faster now than it was in the LV Cup final” against Luna Rossa, and would be faster again on Wednesday. The conditions might help them too, he added.

“There may be a bit more breeze and slightly bigger waves on Wednesday,” said the Ineos Britannia co-helm. “We saw that [New Zealand] struggled in the round robins against the Americans, particularly in some larger sea states. So we’ll see if the conditions are like that whether they are still struggling with the same issues.”

02:35 PM BST

The view from Barcelona

Ben Ainslie insisted Ineos Britannia could “still come back” after his team went 4-0 down in their first-to-seven series against New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup.

After the high drama on Sunday, when Ineos Britannia were handed a pre-start penalty and Ainslie lost his cool with a commentator, Monday’s race - held over from Sunday - was a far calmer affair.

It also felt more encouraging from a British perspective, even if it did yield the same outcome.

Ineos enjoyed their best start to the series, which was one positive. Ainslie’s team decided against engaging in the prestart, choosing to follow New Zealand out to the boundary and then tacking up and away, staying high and hitting the right end of the line with roughly two knots more boat speed.

That speed gave Ineos a slight advantage when the two boats hit the left hand boundary, with New Zealand having to put in two down speed tacks to wriggle free. A tight beat ensued, with Ineos getting their noses in front at the first cross.

But it was New Zealand, crucially, who won the favoured right side of the gate at the top.

With fractionally more pressure on the right heading downwind, New Zealand edged ahead, the umpires dismissing two GB protests, the first for New Zealand changing course towards them, the second for a port-starboard.

From there, it was a classic case of the rich getting richer as New Zealand extended to win by 23 seconds.

Ainslie appeared far calmer afterwards, joking with Stephen McIvor - the Kiwi commentator with whom he had lost his temper 24hrs earlier - about their spat the previous day. Pundit Glenn Ashby joked in return that they had been playing “rock, paper, scissors” to see who would ask Ainslie the questions.

The British skipper was bullish, though, when asked about the team’s prospects, saying they would make the most of Tuesday’s reserve day. “It’s a good opportunity to take a day on shore,” he said. “I think we still have our moments. But there are still moments when we are losing a click. But we can still come back from this. There’s still time.”

02:08 PM BST

When is the next race?

The teams have a rest day tomorrow, and matches five and six will be raced from 13.10 BST on Wednesday. It really is getting critical now - if Ineos Britannia don’t switch up this momentum quickly there is potential for us to have a match point on our hands by close of play on the 16th in this first-to-seven contest.

02:05 PM BST

What is a ‘cyclor’?

Much is made of the driving and trimming roles on the AC75s, but on each boat half of the eight-man crew are ‘cyclors’. These are the athletes who put out some serious watts on static bikes to provide the hydraulic power to trim the sails and therefore drive the boats forwards, replacing the grinders from the last iteration of the event.

The Ineos Britannia cyclors comprise former British Sailing Team members, along with cyclists and Olympic rowers. To get match fit, they have trained alongside the hugely successful cycling team - the Ineos Grenadiers.

As well as supreme power and fitness, not getting seasick is pretty important - no mean feat with your head down and pedalling while travelling at well over 30 knots. British cyclor and Olympic Champion rower Matt Gotrel said: “It’s not like riding a bike on a road. It’s like riding a road bike on a mountain bike trail with lots of rocks. It’s like cycling and being in a rugby match at the same time.”

01:59 PM BST

Pete Burling: “it felt a lot more like a boat race today”

The Emirates Team New Zealand skipper talked about how stressful it was coming back from a difficult position off the start and pays credit to his team, in particular the cyclors for providing the power to the boat and enabling the drivers to “deliver whatever we want”.

Co-helm Nathan Outteridge credits their comeback to getting over to the right-hand-side of the course and nailing the layline for the right turn at the windward gate. He also mentions having made some performance gains to the boat, and the fact they are tacking well.

01:49 PM BST

Ainslie: “we can still come back from this”

It was also a different story in the post-race interviews today, with some good-humoured banter between the commentators and Sir Ben Ainslie, with one of the pundits joking that they had done a ‘rock, paper, scissors’ on who was going to ask the questions today.

Ainslie said: “It was a good race, we got the first cross but they’re just going well, really well.”

“We have our moments but moments where we’re losing a click... we can still come back from this.”

01:44 PM BST

Same result but different story?

Same outcome but it feels as if it’s getting closer. A solid start this time from Ineos. A really tight first beat. NZ just managed to get the favoured right-hand mark at the top. That was so crucial. What would have happened had GB got the right side? Would GB have managed to keep New Zealand behind them? We still don’t know the answer to that.

01:40 PM BST

New Zealand 4-0 Great Britain

It’s another serious body blow to Sir Ben Ainslie’s team, who trail the Kiwis by 23 seconds. There must be particular frustration given that they actually had the superior start and were in control at the beginning of the first upwind. Ray Davies, Emirates Team New Zealand Coach, said that he thought the key moment was at the top of the first upwind where Ineos Britannia slightly overstood the layline for the windward gate and let the New Zealand team into the inside.

01:36 PM BST

Classic match race again

NZL are keeping a loose cover on GBR, taking away all passing opportunities once again. The calm communication we have come to expect between Emirates Team New Zealand co-helms Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge is definitely still a feature here, it all seems very relaxed on the Kiwi boat. It does seem that they have a very efficient tacking manoeuvre where they manage to really glide to windward more effectively compared to the Brits.

Only one leg to go now, and Ineos Britannia trail by 24 seconds. They are doing a good job of staying very outwardly composed, but it’s hard to see how they will get back into this.

01:29 PM BST

NZL extends with two legs remaining

GBR trails by 15 seconds at the leeward gate.

01:26 PM BST

Kiwis sail brilliant upwind leg and take lead

NZL leads GBR by 13 seconds around the windward gate at the halfway mark in this race. We know from experience that it will be very hard to come back from this without a slip-up by the leading boat.

01:22 PM BST

NZL make gain and tack on GBR

Ineos Britannia is in a bit of trouble here. Emirates Team New Zealand have opened up enough of a gap to tack on the Brits in the textbook match racing style we saw yesterday. It looked like NZL had a better angle around the leeward gate, pointing slightly higher. Could have been wind shift, could have been a slight boat speed advantage.

01:20 PM BST

Closest leeward gate we have seen

There is nothing in this. The boats split again at the leeward gate. Shift and pressure will make a big difference here with the leverage over the race course.

01:19 PM BST

GBR protests again

GBR protests again for a port-starboard. Umpires say no penalty - the boats weren’t close enough.

01:18 PM BST

GBR protests

GBR protests for NZL changing course towards them. NZL was right-of-way boat and the umpires rule no penalty.

01:16 PM BST

Kiwis gain by going right

It is even at the top, and the boats have split. Moment of truth will be when they come back together. We know GBR has good downwind speed.

01:14 PM BST

Brits ahead on first proper cross

But it is close. Fair to say we have won the start, now can we stay ahead? This will be very telling.

01:13 PM BST

Kiwis tack at the course boundary

Brits leebow tack just below the Kiwis on port, they’ve forced New Zealand to tack off. Two extra tacks will cost them a lot of distance. This is looking much more like the Ineos Britannia we saw in the Louis Vuitton Cup final.

01:12 PM BST

Clean start

Looks like a very even start to be honest but the Brits had a slightly higher speed off the line to windward. Let’s see what happens on this first cross.

01:11 PM BST

British plan

Sounds like the plan is to stay high to windward and hit the line at pace - keeping it simple, basically.

01:10 PM BST

Starboard entry for Ineos Britannia

They are certainly hunting down Emirates Team New Zealand at the moment. The Kiwis use the boundary to come back at the Brits.

01:09 PM BST

Start sequence is on

We have under three minutes until the start of race four. Let’s see what match racing tactics Ineos Britannia can bring. They have done plenty of practice up against each other within the team in the four-person AC40s - the boats that the youth and women sailed for their respective competitions.

01:06 PM BST

The breeze is in!

Well the wind dance obviously worked. There is 8-12 knots on the race course at the moment, with those wind speeds expected to increase through the afternoon. Racing should kick off on time.

12:51 PM BST

Kiwis in high spirits for dock out

Emirates Team New Zealand certainly know how to celebrate their sailors and send them on their way out to the race course in style.

12:48 PM BST

Round-table umpire discussions

Took a picture of an interesting round-table this morning involving Ineos Britannia pre-start coach Ian Williams, head of sailing Giles Scott, and chief umpire Richard Slater (under the watchful eye of the makers of a documentary due out next year). No prizes for guessing what they were discussing.

The way Slater told it in our media briefing, the GB penalty yesterday was very clear cut from their perspective. NZ were right-of-way boat and Ineos did not give them enough room. The Ineos argument is that NZ were hunting them and at the closing speeds involved they did not have enough time to keep clear.

I believe Ineos made the point (not for the first time) that the umpires have no experience of sailing these AC75s, the size and the closing speeds involved etc - in this case around 60 knots. Slater does not deny that but says he is just enforcing the rules as laid out by the defender and challenger of record.

12:41 PM BST

Fighting talk from Dylan Fletcher on the dock

Ineos Britannia co-helm Dylan Fletcher has said: “I think after yesterday the gloves are going to be off. We’ll be out there pushing hard and the breeze looks good so we’re looking forward to the fight.”

It certainly seems to be a fired up British team today. Hopefully that bodes well.

12:34 PM BST

Ineos Britannia docks out for race four

Ian Williams, Start Coach and Rules Advisor for Ineos Britannia, talks through his morning chat with the umpires around that pre-start penalty yesterday.

12:30 PM BST

The umpires’ decision explained

Sailing has an extensive set of racing rules - and the America’s Cup has a plethora of additional regulations attached to it, along with some subtle differences to the standard rules.

Yesterday’s incident was a classic rule 10 - a boat on port tack (GBR in this incident) has to keep clear of a starboard tack boat (NZL). The area where this gets a little grey is rule 16 - every time a right-of-way boat changes their course, they have to give the other boat room to keep clear.

Ian Williams, seven-time match racing World Champion, said on the Ineos Britannia analysis show: “in my view they didn’t, we (Ineos Britannia) are trying to keep clear of them there. They turned down pretty aggressively at us, again in my view, and obviously the boats get way closer than we all want to see them get. As I say, I don’t agree with it but it’s not the first umpire decision I’ve not agreed with in my career - it’s the way it goes and you can see it both ways.”

12:15 PM BST

Yesterday’s heart-in-mouth moment

For those who missed it, here is that critical moment from the pre-start of race three where the foils of the two AC75s came within a whisker of colliding.

12:03 PM BST

Day three recap: NZL 3-0 GBR

Well it was quite the dramatic day in Barcelona yesterday with a near-crash and a heated exchange between Sir Ben Ainslie and the Kiwi commentator Stephen McIvor, but ultimately it was more disappointment for Ineos Britannia as they fell 3-0 behind to Emirates New Zealand.

Today was supposed to be a reserve day, but due to light breezes yesterday race four has been rescheduled to run at 13:10 BST this afternoon - the only planned race of the day.

The Brits will hope to have used the delay to their advantage, and had a serious regroup overnight. One thing is for certain - they will be getting increasingly anxious to put a win on the board in this historic first-to-seven America’s Cup match. It is the first time that a British team has contested the final match in 60 years. Ainslie’s team will not want to lose this long-sought-after opportunity to lift the Auld Mug and bring it home to Great Britain, a feat never achieved in the competition’s 173-year history.

The critical moment of the third race yesterday happened before the start gun went off when the two AC75 yachts had a boat-on-boat incident before the start and got far too close for comfort. GBR was penalised for not keeping clear of NZL, who were on starboard, and they had to lose 75 metres relative to the other boat, from which there was no way back.

There was further drama after the finish, when Kiwi commentator Stephen McIvor was coming to the end of his post-race interview with Ainslie and asked: “Still believe that you’re as close [to New Zealand] when it comes to performance? Because I get that feeling coming off your boat.” It’s possible that there was a communication misunderstanding, but Ainslie replied, “Maybe that’s the Kiwi commentator in you, mate”. Then, as he got up, with his microphone still picking up, he was heard to mutter off camera: “F---ing w-----.” We know that a fired up Ainslie is a successful one. He famously said of his rivals during the London 2012 Olympics: “they’ve made me angry, and you don’t want to make me angry,” before going on to collect his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Perhaps that is what it will take to turn this around.