Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, day 9 on board Brunel. Final miles before the finish. Making landfall at the U.K. mainland. 28 May, 2018. - Sam Greenfield/Volvo Ocean Race
The top three teams in the Volvo Ocean Race are within three points of each other at the end of Leg 9.
Team Brunel won the transatlantic crossing from Newport to Cardiff to vault into contention for the overall race win. The Leg 9 results also mean a new team is at the top of the leaderboard as Dongfeng Race Team, with a third place finish, took overall race honours by just a single point over MAPFRE, who settled for a disappointing fifth place finish on the last long leg in the round the world challenge.
It means the final two European legs will ramp up the pressure on the crews – and deliver edge-of-their-seat excitement for race fans around the world tracking the boats live and watching all the action at sea transmitted via Inmarsat.
Leg 9, from Newport to Cardiff, day 4 on board Team AkzoNobel. Luke Molloy on deck trimming the sails. 23 May, 2018. - Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race
Inmarsat is the official Satellite Communications Partner for the fifth consecutive edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, providing connectivity for safety services and weather updates as well as race coverage.
To earn the Leg 9 win, Team Brunel had to fend off team AkzoNobel, who had held a nominal lead of a few hundred metres just hours before the finish. They took first place by just four minutes and five seconds.
For AkzoNobel there was the consolation of having set a new standard for 24-hour distance run in the Volvo Ocean Race. The crew obliterated the previous race record set in a Volvo Ocean 70 in 2008 covering 602.51 nautical miles at an average speed of 25.08 knots.
The Cardiff in-port race is on 8 June with Leg 10 to Gothenburg starting on 10 June.
