Volvo Ocean Race: The final thriller is underway: Brunel outdoes Mapfre, Dongfeng in front

The final three-way battle for victory in the 13th Volvo Ocean Race has begun. The fleet set off on the final leg from Gothenburg to The Hague at 2 p.m. on the dot. Contrary to the original information provided by the organisers, the leg is almost 1000 nautical miles long and takes the crews along several additional marks.

Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel had already set the first attacking accent before the starting signal. In the duel with Mapfre, the Dutch team had put so much pressure on the Spaniards that they were unable to cross the start line correctly and had to restart. This immediately left Xabí Fernandez and his team with an uncomfortably small gap to their rivals. As a result, however, Team Brunel was also unable to capitalise on its advantage at the start and dropped back to penultimate place, while Dongfeng had taken command at the front of the fleet a good two hours after the start. At this point, however, the seven boats were still less than a nautical mile apart.

How Brunel put Mapfre under pressure and how Dongfeng rushed away: This is how it went down at the start of the final!

An hour after the start, Brunel's on-board reporter Sam Greenfield had already written: "Keep your fingers crossed that our finish will be better than our start. Because it was bad! We had to chicken out and compromise on speed, joining the fleet in fifth place. With Dongfeng in front of us and Mapfre behind us, we left Gothenburg in second place overall. We have a very branching course ahead of us, where anything can happen. The team has three days to overtake Dongfeng. We are currently sailing towards the south of Norway at 11.1 knots boat speed in 16 knots of wind." Brunel's helmsman, America's Cup winner and Olympic champion Peter Burling, said: "We're close to everyone. Next stop: Norway."

Incidentally, AkzoNobel won the start itself. Although the second Dutch team in the race can no longer improve on its fourth place overall in the 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, it would still like to win the final leg to its home port of The Hague. In addition, AkzoNobel could well play a role in the three-way battle in the final sprint if Simeon Tienpont's team manages to squeeze in between the front runners involved in the three-way battle for victory. It remains highly exciting on course for The Hague, where the boats are expected to be watched by hundreds of thousands of fans this weekend.

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