Olympic hero Sir Ben Ainslie battles a desert sandstorm to reach his Land Rover BAR sailing team as the new Land Rover Discovery made its primetime TV debut in a new advertisement.

The 60-second advert was directed by Ridley Scott Associates’ Jake Scott and was aired for the first time during the break of ITV’s coverage of the RBS Six Nations’ game between Ireland and Italy.

The spot captures Sir Ben as he manoeuvres his way through an epic sandstorm in the new Discovery. Huge clouds of sand swirl around him as he effortlessly handles the vehicle, turning sharply and avoiding trees to finally meet his teammates at the storm’s edge. They then head to the marina to hit the water in their specially designed America’s Cup boat, a multi-hull catamaran designed with support from Land Rover’s engineers.

The advert also shows the seven-strong crew demonstrating the vehicle’s intelligent seat fold technology, which allows owners to configure the versatile seating through a dedicated app on their smartphone from anywhere in the world.

“The Land Rover BAR sailors are honoured to feature in the new Land Rover Discovery TV campaign,” Sir Ben said. “It was the first time the team had been involved in a production like this. It was a lot of fun, and we were really taken outside of our ‘normal’ environment for the shoot, seeing it come together on screen is a real moment for us.

“We partnered with Land Rover in our bid to bring the Cup home, because they are a great British brand, and a fantastic engineering and technology business sharing a belief in the importance of design and innovation.”

Sir Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR team will compete in Bermuda for the 35th America’s Cup in June 2017, and are top of the leader board heading into the final rounds.