Volvo Ocean Race

After more than 1000 nautical miles of ocean racing on the second stage of Leg 3 to Sanya, just 1.5 miles separated the top three boats when they entered the Malacca Strait at around 1210 UTC this morning.

After hitting the front yesterday, Iker Martínez’s Team Telefónica rounded Pulau We island narrowly ahead to lead the fleet into one of the world's busiest and most hazardous shipping routes.

On the approach to the island, Telefónica held off sustained attacks from Chris Nicholson’s CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and Ken Read’s PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG after these three had picked their way precariously around the rocky northern Sumatran coast.

Telefónica and CAMPER traded tacks constantly on the 25 nautical mile section against the wind to Pulau We, all the time stalked by PUMA just a few miles behind.

As the leading pack began to round Pulau We PUMA snatched second place from CAMPER when Read cut the corner to emerge ahead of Nicholson who had taken a more offshore route in search of better winds.

However when the boats crossed again just minutes later CAMPER had struck back to claim back second place.

Race fans can follow the action live via from this morning on volvooceanrace.com via our Live Tracker which will be updated every 60 seconds while the boats are in the Malacca Strait.

Just go to the regular tracker page via the Race Data tab and press the ‘Live’ button for the enhanced tracker.