Volvo Ocean Race: Mapfre dominates, Brunel with new strength

Bouwe Bekking announced it before the race, and his team of just seven realised it: "We want to close the gap to the two leading boats in the harbour race rankings." Today, the yellow boat flying the Dutch flag did indeed put in a good performance with second place in the harbour race off Guanghzou in China. Only the Spanish team Mapfre, which leads the overall standings in the Volvo Ocean Race, was once again faster and, with its victory in Chinese waters, has now also taken the lead in the in-port standings.

This was possible because the previous In-Port leaders and local heroes made a double blunder at their home race: Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team made a false start in front of Guanghzou and - like the Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team - had to turn back to the start line to catch up. However, while David Witt's team made a clean sweep under Hong Kong's flag and eventually moved up to fourth place, the red Dongfeng boat got caught in the anchor line at the start mark. By the time Caudrelier's team had finally freed itself from the awkward situation, the rest of the fleet was already hundreds of metres behind.

His team narrowly lost out to compatriot Bouwe Bekking and Team Brunel in the duel for second place ahead of Guangzhou: Simeon Tienpont reports from the harbour race in Chinese waters

The victorious Mapfre skipper Xabi Fernández said after his team's start-finish victory: "It was the expected challenging and complicated race on the river. We had a very good start and managed to stay in rhythm with the wind and current. That allowed us to pull away." Behind Mapfre, an exciting duel for second place had developed between the two Dutch boats: Team Brunel with Olympic and America's Cup winner Peter Burling, to whom skipper Bouwe Bekking had partly handed over the helm, and Simeon Tienpont's Team AkzoNobel were battling it out. The lead changed hands several times in this thrilling exchange of blows over three laps, until Team Brunel was able to pull away slightly on the last Amwind section and use this advantage to decide the battle for second place and reduce the gap to Dongfeng Race Team, which was now only second in the in-port standings.

"That's obviously a very good result," said a delighted Bouwe Bekking, "we had a really good race. We made good manoeuvres and were fast. The latter is the most important thing." Second place tasted all the sweeter for the record eight-time participant and his team because they too had returned to the line after the start. Peter Burling explained the misunderstanding: "We had come very close to the start line. Then we misunderstood a radio message. So we turned back until we realised that we weren't one of the early starters. Of course, that cost us some time. But we then put in a pretty good cross and reached the first mark in fourth place. After that we were able to step on the gas and catch a few more boats." Bekking attributes the fact that the downwind sections in particular went remarkably well for Team Brunel to his crew, which was reduced to six men and one woman. "We sailed with two people less and were simply faster."

Charles Caudrelier's disappointed men and women, who would have loved to have scored points in front of their home crowd in the harbour race with the official title "Dongfeng In-Port Race", were unable to catch any more boats despite their best efforts and had to settle for sixth and last place behind Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag and Dee Caffari's team Turn the Tide on Plastic. "Sometimes you fight as hard as you can, but there's no turning back," said Caudrelier after crossing the finish line. The Danish-American team Vestas 11th Hour Racing had decided not to take part in this harbour race following the collision with a fishing boat in which a Chinese fisherman died shortly before the end of the fourth leg. The blue boat is still being repaired. There is no new information on the ongoing investigation. The team will not answer any questions about the accident and will await the results of the investigation.

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet will leave the harbour of Guangzhou on Monday, heading for Auckland, but will make a stopover in Hong Kong on the upcoming fifth leg. The starting signal will be given there on 7 February at 1 p.m. local time.

Intermediate standings in the in-port classification (harbour race)

1. Mapfre (32 points)
2. Dongfeng Race Team (27 points)
3. Team Brunel (23 points)
4. Team AkzoNobel (21 points)
5. Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag (13 points)
6. Vestas 11th Hour Racing (12 points)
7. Turn the Tide on Plastic (10 points)