Team New Zealand extended their America's Cup lead over Britain to 3-0 in the first-to-seven series after the two boats came within "a matter of centimetres" of clashing foils.
It was ruthless sailing by the Kiwis who eventually won by 52 seconds on the waters off Barcelona.
LATEST HEADLINES:
A fourth head-to-head had been due to take place on Sunday, but with an unstable Mediterranean breeze, the race committee abandoned racing for the day and will restart on Monday.
New Zealand went into the day 2-0 up and forced a distance penalty on Ainslie's team, after failing to keep clear in an aggressive close-quarters manoeuvre by Team New Zealand.
The British boat had to drop 75 metres behind the Kiwis after crossing the line to shake off the penalty, handing the America's Cup holders an early advantage.
The penalty was not what the British needed to bounce back after the day one results where New Zealand started better and showed slightly more speed in their foiling AC75 monohull.
Team New Zealand's co-helm Nathan Outteridge said that the starts were "pretty important" because there were few opportunities for the trailing boat to then pass and the team were focusing on them, adding that their AC75 was going "pretty fast".
"It's nice to get all the things coming together at the moment," Outteridge told reporters of New Zealand's defence against Britain, who have won the right to challenge for the America's Cup for the first time in 60 years.
"We'll see how it unfolds from here," Outteridge said.