Volvo Ocean Race: The three-way battle: Mapfre in front, Dongfeng and Brunel attack

On Thursday, the North Sea is set to become a sailing gladiator arena. With the approaching depression, the fleet will sail faster and faster towards the stage harbour of Gothenburg. Current forecasts now even predict a speedy ride to the finish. Before that, the crews will probably have to deal with strong and stormy winds and could reach record-breaking speeds. And because the three boats that can still win the race are getting closer and closer, no team will take their foot off the accelerator.

On Wednesday evening, Xabí Fernandez's Spanish team Mapfre continued to lead the fleet. Just three nautical miles behind, Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team, which leads the overall standings, put the pressure on in the North Sea at around 10 pm German time that evening. Helmsman Kevin Escoffier said: "We're off. We have to be fast now to get Mapfre."

Thrilling pictures of the fleet on course for Gothenburg

And Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel, which was still more than eight nautical miles behind at midday, has reduced its gap to Mapfre to less than four nautical miles, is doggedly fighting its way towards the two red boats at the front and is reminiscent of the furious speed sections in the Southern Ocean. They were followed at some distance by Simeon Tienpont's Team AkzoNobel, which was also catching up, and Dee Caffari's Team Turn the Tide on Plastic, which had dropped out of the top three. David Witt's team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag still has just under 40 nautical miles to equalise.

The course of the stage promises high tension right up to the finish. Forecasters expect the first boats to arrive in the Swedish harbour of Gothenburg on Thursday evening or Friday night; perhaps they will arrive sooner. The last email from on board any of the seven boats on the teams' blog is more than a day old. This shows how breathless and sleepless the crews are experiencing this short but extremely demanding and highly stressful leg. "We've hardly slept since the start," reported Brunel's Australian trimmer Nina Curtis. There is no time for anything other than sailing, eating and sleeping. There is so much at stake, because the outcome of this leg could be the deciding factor in the battle for overall victory. The most important question on the minds of experts and fans on Wednesday evening: Will everyone not only get through the low section quickly but also safely during their relentless chase? And who will reach the highest speed on this stormy North Sea ride? The answers to these questions will be revealed in the Swedish home port of the race organisers, who will be there for the last time in this 13th edition before the Atlant Ocean Racing team, also from Sweden, takes over responsibility for the most famous team race around the world for the future.

For those who can hardly look at the exciting stage finale on Thursday and need a little distraction: Click here for the points calculator where you can use the expected or hoped-for stage results to calculate the new interim result before the eleventh and final stage. And here is the link to the Live tracker and the interim results.