A great victory for Team Brunel
Team Brunel continues to string together a string of victories at this end of the Volvo Ocean Race. After their victory on the big Pacific leg between Auckland and Itajaí, they finished in 2nd place in the second leg of the race e position in Newport only 1 minute after MAPFRE and after leading the fleet almost all the way. And it's another stage victory that the Dutch team of Bouwe Beeking has just won this Tuesday 29th May at 4:39 am French time (3:39 am local time), on the transatlantic leg between Newport and Cardiff, won after 8 days 8 hours 39 minutes and 53 seconds, at 17 knots of real average speed.
A victory that was played out in the final hours of the race, thanks to a better negotiation of the strong currents and light airs of the Bristol Channel, allowing Team Brunel to finish ahead of Team AkzoNobel, who finished just 4 minutes and 5 seconds behind.
Dongfeng Race Team completes the podium of this 9 e stage and thus takes back the lead in the general classification with 60 points. MAPFRE who finishes in 5 e position returns to the 2 e place in the general standings, just a point behind the leaders (59 points), while Team Brunel is taking advantage of this very fine operation - and of these 15 points (double stage count) - to come back to catch up with its rivals with only three points ahead of the leader (57 points)..
"We are very happy with this result, our goal was to beat the red boats Bouwe Bekking was delighted just after crossing the finish line in Wales. It's really nice to win the race, plus with the bonus point and at the end of this nice final fight with AkzoNobel, we are a happy team. The goal now is to keep up the momentum, we have reduced the gap to MAPFRE and Dongfeng, the final win is still our main goal."
It's an incredible comeback for the yellow boat which, at the end of the sixth stage in Auckland with a 6 e place, was 17 points behind the then leader MAPFRE..
A new leader in the Volvo Ocean Race
So there are now 3 boats - Dongfeng Race Team, MAPFRE and Team Brunel - that can claim final victory. Third in Cardiff, 1 hour 36 minutes behind the winner, the boat bearing the Chinese colours finally made a profitable operation. Even if it finished on the podium for the sixth time in eight legs (two fourth places) and still can't manage to get that famous stage victory that it has been missing since the start.
Having been in the lead from the first night, he had to make a route choice first, opting for a gybe and the most direct route, where Team Brunel, AkzoNobel, Vestas 11th Hour Racing and Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag were pursuing a southerly route, which will prove to be a profitable one for the first two.
"We're happy, that's good, this step was dangerous, if we missed it, it was over for us. We made a bad choice at the start, or in any case a very badly paid choice with catastrophic weather compared to the forecast. After that, we sailed very well, we managed to outrun MAPFRE and get back on the southern option. It wasn't enough to win, we didn't succeed in this leg as much as we would have liked, because Brunel is coming back very close to us, which makes us an adversary to control as well. It's going to be a big battle between the three boats" said Charles Caudrelier when he arrived.
A battle whose outcome will only be known at the end of the next two short steps. The first between Cardiff and Gothenburg (1,300 miles) and the second between Cardiff and Gothenburg (1,300 miles) e between Sweden and The Hague (700 miles), the end point of the Volvo Ocean Race
The overall Volvo Ocean Race standings
Dongfeng Race Team 60 points
MAPFRE 59 points
Team Brunel 57 points
Team AkzoNobel 48 points
Vestas 11th Hour Racing 36 points
Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag 22 points
Turn the Tide on Plastic 20 points
