Team Telefónica set a cracking pace in a quickfire inshore course on Saturday to lead the fleet out of Abu Dhabi on the Leg 3 Stage 1 sprint to Sharjah.
The overall race leaders nailed the start and quickly accelerated to a smoking 16 knots boat speed within minutes to take the lead.
The Spanish team rounded the first mark in pole position, just eight seconds ahead of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand. Iker Martínez extended his team’s lead over CAMPER to 28 seconds by the second mark.
Groupama trailed in third position, followed by PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in last place, quite the contrast to their winning form in yesterday’s Etihad Airways In-Port Race.
But the locals fought back, with Abu Dhabi making a gallant charge on the third leg, claiming three scalps to gain second position.
As the west-northwest wind built to gust up to 18 knots the fleet was unable to challenge Telefónica’s lead across the eight nautical mile inshore course.
At the final mark rounding Telefónica were 24 seconds ahead of Abu Dhabi, with CAMPER, Groupama and PUMA trailing more than two minutes behind.
English cricketers including spin bowler Graeme Swann and the youngest batsman to reach 5000 test runs Alistair Cook had a front row seat for all the action, racing on Abu Dhabi before jumping overboard with style after the inshore course.
The 106nm Stage 1 race to Sharjah carries 20 per cent of the overall Leg 3 points, with six points up for grabs for first place.
The race is tipped to be a quick-paced largely reaching drag-race along the United Arab Emirates coast, that will take between six and seven hours.
Volvo Ocean Race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante predicts that the wind will continue to build throughout the day as the affects of the Shamal front comes into force, creating north-westerly winds gusting in excess of 20 knots.
