The last 24 hours have been full-on aboard Gitana 11, whose arrival in Brazil is expected around 18:00 hours, French time. Having managed to reduce the gap between them and Groupama 2 to under 200 miles, Lionel Lemonchois and Yann Guichard have spent another night at speeds above 26 knots.
 “We're taking turns at the helm. When it gets a bit too much, we put the boat on auto pilot and then listen out, ready to release if necessary or to gybe to pull free,” explained Yann Guichard trying to communicate to landlubbers some of the intensity of this final phase of combat, which demands total vigilance in the pitch-black night of the moonless southern hemisphere tropics. As usual, unremitting effort is the mantra on board until the finish line is crossed.

Interviewed live on Europe 1 yesterday, Loïck Peyron acknowledged that he was still in the position of hunter: “For the moment, the animal we'd dearly love to take a pot-shot at is Ecover,” explained the Gitana Eighty skipper, who despite a certain weariness induced by some lengthy gybes  - “…we're starting to really get to know the gybing and spinnaker adjustment manoeuvres …” – is enthusiastic about the quality of the competition: “Tremendous. It's great to have such a tightly grouped fleet, but still with plenty of different options: architectural options, technical options, weather options, and strategic options.” For the moment, the accent is going to be primarily on tactics due to the leading group's imminent entry of the doldrums. The order in which they exit this delicate zone could well resemble the final positions on the podium in Bahia.

IMOCA - 17 registered
Boat Rank/Skipper  Latitude  Longitude  Speed Cap  Dist.But  Dist. 1st
1 Ecover III  11 32.98' N 24 52.81' W  13.1  191  1696.6  0.0
2 Gitana Eighty 11 28.11' N 23 41.60' W  12.9  175 1724.9  28.3
3 Groupe Bel  12 07.07' N  24 34.23' W  12.1  193  1735.2 38.6
4 Cheminées Poujoulat  12 46.44' N 24 41.76' W  12.8  191 1767.3  70.7
5 Foncia  12 54.74' N 24 41.55' W 13.4  189  1774.9  78.3
6 Safran  13 45.44' N  25 56.73' W  12.7 256  1791.7  95.2
7 Brit Air   12 56.32' N  23 53.18' W  14.1 250 1797.2  100.7
8 VM Matériaux    13 49.34' N 25 47.39' W 13.4  248  1798.8  102.2

...

ORMA - 5 registered
Boat Rank/Skipper  Latitude  Longitude Speed  Cap  Dist.But  Dist. 1st

1 Groupama  11 55.04' S 36 45.51' W  20.9  224  106.3  0.0
2 Gitana 11  9 51.77' S 34 56.84' W  26.4  222 287.8  181.5
3 Banque Populaire  8 09.44' S 33 36.68' W  27.0 216  416.2  309.9
4 Brossard  4 21.68' S  31 30.88' W  29.5 212  670.9  564.7
5 Sopra  2 10.92' S 30 10.27' W  7.6  174 824.1  717.8