Mike Sanderson, skipper de ABN AMRO One, leader actuel de la Volovo Ocean Race s´est emparé à 3h18 GMT cette nuit d´une nouvelle victoire d´étape entre Wellington et Rio de Janeiro, en 20 jours, 01 h, 48 minutes and 23 secondes. Le skipper français Sébastien Josse est arrivé à 7h36 GMT et s´empare de la troisième place, derrière Paul Cayard (Pirates of carribean). Brasil termine en 4e position. A noter qu’une heure seulement sépare l’arrivée des 2e, 3e et 4e.
Premier commentaires du skipper d´ABN AMRO ONE : “I didn’t think we’d won this leg until this afternoon. That was when I allowed myself to believe that we might have pulled this off. And even in the harbour when at one stage it looked like we were going to swept past the finish by the current there were some pretty nervous times. It was amazing to watch the guys behind – I see there have been a few places changes today. It’s been tough since we left Wellington, but some amazing sailing. All I can say is the guys did a fantastic job sailing this boat. I’m just so proud of the whole of TEAM ABN AMRO. The boat is immaculate, it never put a foot wrong – it did everything we asked it to do. We looked after it sometimes and then there was a couple of times we put the hammer down and showed a bit of pace, so that was fun.
I’m very excited to be in Rio. This is a pretty big milestone in the Volvo Ocean Race. We’re now roaring back into the Atlantic and there are some pretty exciting times for this boat coming up. This is one of the legs we were most worried about, perhaps for one or two of the short ones are going to be interesting too but the situation in the last thousand miles has been really tough, but we’ve been mentally preparing for that for about a year. I think the guys behind thought they might catch us up, but the boat went well and I think it surprised people how well it went in the light airs".
