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During the past 24 hours the Spanish boat has been the fastest in the fleet, covering 397 miles, 18 more than her French rival, with the two alternating at the top. The Iker Martínez vs Franck Cammas duel is served...

The past 24 hours have been really positive for Spain's “Telefónica”. After making it through tropical storm “Alberto” and moving up to the top spot during the night, the Spanish team is battling with France's “Groupama” to take the provisional lead in the leg. The data notched up over the past few hours reveal that it is only a matter of hours before “Telefónica” takes the baton from Franck Cammas again and amidst the action a transitional zone is up ahead which could see the boats moving back to a new starting grid.

After putting tropical storm “Alberto” astern, “Telefónica” began to claw back miles on “Groupama” and “Puma” who witnessed the Spanish team make ground with total confidence. Whilst notching up faster speeds than their rivals, at 22:00 UTC “Telefónica” with Iker Martínez pushed past the Americans and the French in the North Atlantic and moved into the lead in the fleet.

The situation stayed like that for six hours until at 04:30 UTC Franck Cammas played his cards the right way and moved into first place. Since then the Spaniards have been pushing hard on the French with a northern positioning in the fleet. Steadily the boat notched up speed peaks of between 15 and 17 knots and has moved dangerously close to her most immediate rivals.

At 13:00 UTC “Telefónica” was still applying pressure to the French, moving to just 3.8 miles away, and Franck Cammas is well aware that the lead can so easily slip away from him from one moment to the next. The Spanish boat is doing averages of 16.5 knots and the 15 to 19 knot southerly winds that “Telefónica” is sailing with are pushing the Spanish boat on an east-southeasterly course.

For Iker Martínez the past 24 hours have been “fantastic for us. We've sailed fast and we've been able to enjoy a bit more breeze than the others, a bit further north, so that's great. When you push forward faster than the rest it's marvellous”. Diego Fructuoso, the team's MCM said: “After a calmer day we are now back up to speed. The boat is going fast, but the sailing is pleasant. We also seem to be doing things the right way in terms of our position with our rivals, which is the most important thing of all. I hope we also get a bit of luck...”.

For now things are certainly looking up for “Telefónica”, with the boat positioned as the fastest in the fleet with average boat speeds of 16.5 knots and also being the entry with the most distance covered in the last 24 hour run: 397 nautical miles, 18 miles more than France's “Groupama”. 

The key coming up in a day and a half

With under 3,000 miles to go until the boats reach Lisbon (Portugal), the Spanish skipper says that the key to the leg will materialise over the next few days: “The past day has been fantastic and we hope that we've still got a bit of this left, because in one or two days' time we're going to come across some difficult times, which will be crucial for the leg”. The fleet knows that ahead lies a transition zone which is likely to see a regrouping of the entries and may prove decisive in terms of the final leg outcome.

With this new minefield lurking up ahead, Diego Fructuoso explained: “I don't know what will happen over the next few days. It looks as if the wind will shift astern of us and may open up the leg a bit more, because it will mean having to gybe and according to when each boat chooses to make the move, the result might be better or worse. Cape and Iker are concentrating hard at the chart table, thinking about where the best option might lie”. Meanwhile, the “Telefónica” skipper Iker Martínez said this morning in a video call that “We are waiting for a small shift and it will be hard to choose the sail to use and it's also hard to know what will happen over the next few hours, over the next half day or even day. I think it's likely that the most important moment will be in a day and a half to two days' time when the leaders will hit the high pressure... We will all have to choose a positioning and it will definitely be the most interesting point, there's no doubt about it”.

Anyone say 'cold'?

The North Atlantic is one of the world's most respected oceans by offshore sailors, with its tough conditions, in particular the cold, taking their toll, especially when there is only a couple of months left of the round the world race. For now Diego Fructuoso says: “The temperature is good, although it's nothing compared to the leg we've just done. There are only a few of us still using the light footwear (I'm one of them) and I've got my boots ready for use at any moment. The heading we have to take to Lisbon is 64º and that's more or less what we're doing, so Pepe has said that he doesn't think we'll be climbing up much further north, so it doesn't look like we'll be getting too cold”.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 7

MIAMI (USA) – LISBON (PORTUGAL): 3,590 miles

Day 3 – 13:00 UTC – 23^rd May 2012 

1. Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas), 2,617.7 miles to finish

2. Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), +3.8 miles

3. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +26.3 miles

4. Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read), +32.9 miles

5. Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), +49.7 miles

6. Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), +58.8 miles