AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Oracle beat Britain's GBR Challenge for its fifth consecutive victory and moved into third place in the America's Cup challenger standings Saturday.

	France's Le Defi, left, got the best of Italy's Mascalzone Latino, which will be eliminated from the competition.

Le Defi of France beat Italy's Mascalzone Latino by 1 minute, 10 seconds in an elimination match to clinch a spot in the challenger quarterfinals.

The race, between the two bottom teams in the nine-team series, came at the end of the second round of challenger racing and determined which team would be eliminated. Both teams had only one point when the match began, Le Defi from 14 starts and Mascalzone from 15.

Mascalzone's only victory in two full rounds of challenger racing was over Le Defi, by 5:19 on Oct. 12.

OneWorld of Seattle won twice Saturday, beating defending challenger champion Prada in a fight for second place and returning to beat U.S. rival Stars & Stripes, to conclude its second-round program with 13 victories in 16 races.

OneWorld was in second place in the series, one point behind Switzerland's Alinghi.

Oracle has two races to sail to complete its round-robin schedule after the postponement of its second race Saturday against Sweden's Victory Challenge. The race was deferred until Sunday because of gear damage it sustained in its morning race.

Victories in both of its remaining matches, against Victory and Le Defi of France, would tie Oracle with OneWorld with 12 points and allow it to take second place on a countback.

When teams are tied at the end of the round-robin, the advantage goes to the team that won in head-to-head meetings.

OneWorld won its first-round meeting with Oracle, but Oracle's second-round victory is counted as decisive in breaking any tie. OneWorld had 13 victories, but was deducted a point by Cup organizers for a pre-regatta rules violation.

Alinghi also won twice Saturday, over Victory by 29 seconds and GBR by 1:26, to end the day with 13 triumphs from 15 races.

The Swiss team is guaranteed of taking top seeding into the quarterfinals.

The first-placed team at the end of the second round earns the right to choose its opponent in the best-of-seven race quarterfinals, which begin Nov. 12.

OneWorld beat Prada of Italy by 54 seconds. Both teams had 10 points from 14 races entering the match and OneWorld's victory gave it an immediate one-point edge. It increased its margin to two when it won its afternoon race over New York's Stars & Stripes by 1:19. Prada has a race to sail Sunday against Alinghi but cannot bridge the gap to OneWorld.

The makeup matches Sunday include Oracle against Le Defi, and Oracle meeting Victory, and Alinghi against Prada.

Oracle is unbeaten since the first race of the second round when a defeat against Prada -- the team's fourth defeat in five races -- prompted backer Larry Ellison to overhaul his crew.

New Zealander Chris Dickson took over as skipper, relieving Peter Holmberg of that role, and the heavily sponsored syndicate began to turn its campaign around.