Sprint to St Malo: Dongfeng Race Team finishes third in Leg Zero, Round 3

Dongfeng Race Team finished the third of the four Leg Zero warm-up races for this year’s Volvo Ocean Race in third place this morning, when it crossed the finish line of the passage race from Plymouth to St Malo.

The Chinese boat sponsored by Dongfeng Motor Corporation, which won the Volvo Ocean 65 class in the Rolex Fastnet Race on Tuesday, rounded out the podium positions in St Malo behind MAPFRE and Team Brunel.

The short race from Plymouth saw the crews complete a fast passage to a mark off the Needles at the western end of the Isle of Wight, before turning south and downwind towards the finish.

“It was a very short but nice and intense race. There was a big split in the fleet at the beginning and at the end of the day yesterday, MAPFRE crossed a ahead of us and they caught a bit of wind in a light spot to gain 10 miles in a few hours. So it was impossible for us to catch them,” said Charles Caudrelier.

“We had a nice fight with Vestas 11th Hour Racing in terms of working on the speed and the sails crossover, so for us it was a very interesting race even if the result was not fantastic,” said the French skipper.

The Leg Zero series, which does not count towards the scoring of the Volvo Ocean Race proper, continues with the final race from St Malo to Lisbon starting on August 13.