Sir Ben Ainslie accepted “it was not the start we were looking for” after Great Britain were beaten by New Zealand in Saturday’s opening two races of the America’s Cup.

Ineos Britannia is bidding to become the first British boat to win the 173-year-old competition.

But a battery problem hampered their start in race one and Emirates Team New Zealand opened a sizeable lead on the first of six legs as the boats raced up and down the Mediterranean Sea in front of Barcelona.

New Zealand, winners in 2017 and 2021, eventually won the opening race by 41 seconds.

“We didn’t have the perfect entry to the race, but the guys did a good job to recover from that and keep calm,” said four-time Olympic champion Ainslie.

“We were in a half-decent spot on the start line, it was just dependent on where the breeze went from there and the Kiwis did a good job. It wasn’t that we did a lot wrong, they just put in a good race.”

Ineos Britannia made a better start to the second race but the defending champions pulled away to win by 27 seconds.

“Credit to the Kiwis, two really good races,” said Ainslie.

“There are a few things we need to work on. We couldn’t quite match them around the track but I’m confident the team can figure it out, come back and get some scores on the board.”

There are two further races on Sunday and then a three-day break before races five and six.