Volvo Ocean Race: First victory for Dongfeng in Cape Town

Charles Caudrelier and his Dongfeng Race Team have claimed their first victory shortly before the start of the third stage. At the harbour race in Cape Town, the French-Chinese team beat the Spanish team Mapfre, which leads the overall standings, and the Danish-American team Vestas 11th Hour Racing after a slow start with the best speed and good tactical decisions. For Caudrelier's team, it was the first victory in this 13th edition of the most famous race around the world, which allowed the team to move up to second place behind Mapfre in the in-port standings.

"Our team performed superbly," said the French skipper, who was hungry for victory, "very nice boat handling and good speed. It was a really good team performance. Our start wasn't exactly fantastic, but then we made a good decision by tacking a little earlier. That allowed us to put pressure on Vestas and then we were quite fast. That was the key factor."

How Dongfeng won the race, why Vestas 11th Hour Racing failed in the battle for a podium place and how Mapfre fought its way to second place

In fantastic sailing conditions with winds of up to 20 knots, the spectators watched an exciting race under a bright blue sky with several changes of position and thrilling duels. On the second downwind leg, Vestas 11th Hour Racing sailed towards the turning mark at such an unfortunate angle that Charly Enright and his crew had great difficulty furling their large A3 sail. The problem did not have a direct impact on the ranking, but the sail could no longer be set correctly at the last top mark. With an "egg timer" in the big cloth, Vestas completed the last section of the course extremely slowly.

Navigator Simon Fisher later reported: "We got off to a good start in the race. At the second top mark, Dongfeng pushed us to the disadvantaged side. That set us back overall. The problems with the sail then hurt us on the last section. It was just a typical example of a snowball effect." The handling error cost the team two places, as both Mapfre and AkzoNobel were able to overtake Vestas in the final sprint. This was particularly impressive for the Spaniards, who had taken a penalty shortly before the start and were the last to cross the line. Turning this into a second place with an almost aggressive forward drive and combative attacks marked the comeback of the day. For Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, the spectacular final spurt came too late after an initially intense duel with Sacllywag, as a result of which David Witt's crew conceded a penalty. Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic crossed the finish line just ahead of the Dutch team after a successful race.

Results harbour race Cape Town

1. Dongfeng Race Team
2. Mapfre
3. Team AkzoNobel
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing
5. Turn the Tide on Plastic
6. Team Brunel
7. Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag

Intermediate results of the Inport evaluation

1. Mapfre (19 points)
2. Dongfeng Race Team (18 points)
3. Team Brunel (13 points)
4. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (12 points)
5. Team AkzoNobel (11 points)
6. Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag (6 points)
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic (5 points)