Groupama Winner Leg8 in Home-country.

Groupama is the Happy Winner of Leg8 into their Home-base Lorient. It was the first time a Leg Finish was broadcasted live on internet, courtesy a  French TV station. Together with the 3D animation, this was a fantastic reporting effort and for daylight finished should be continued.

The big looser in the Leg8 must be Telefonica. Sailing in the lead , a day before the finish, they got problem with  a rudder breakage. A repair at sea with the spare rudder was made and they started to chase. Surprisingly they got into the lead , but just as the crucial jybe towards the Finish was made, she broke her 2nd rudder ; pushing hard is one thing but pushing till you get severe damage is another thing. They were limping in survival mode and lucky to kept Sanya Lan just behind her, to save 10 points, but this will keep her from the Overall Victory.

Camper made a good 2nd place, by a good sailing strategy in the last day than allowed them to pass Puma that was long time in a 2nd place option.

Azzam ended on 4th place making an early  jybe but that did not gained them any places.

Groupama now has a 23 points lead on Puma and a very good chance on the Overall Victory, with just one Leg and  2 In-Port races to go.
Puma again has  a 5 point lead on both Camper and Telefonica with equal points.

Theoretically all 4 Boats still can win the Overall Volvo Ocean Race trophy, but the more intense battles will be for the 2nd and 3rd place on the Podium.

next:
In-Port Race Lorient on Saturday 30 June
Start Leg9 on Sunday 1 July
In-Port Race in Galway on Saturday 7 July.