Vendée Globe day 5 - Peyron extends lead

Peyron extends lead, Hatfield restarts in light winds

Rankings at 0400hrs GMT: (FRA, unless stated)

1st Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) 22, 382 miles to finish
2nd Seb Josse (BT) + at 30.1 miles from leader
3rd Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) at + 32.7 miles from leader
4th Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 39.2 miles from leader
5th Yann Elies (Generali) at +55.4 miles from leader

Selected International:
10th Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) + 98.9 miles
12th Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) +135.6 miles
13th Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) + 169.9 miles
15th Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) + 186.2 miles
16th Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) + 246.1 miles
17th Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) + 279.9 miles
18th Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) + 330.2 miles
20th Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) + 373.3 miles
21th Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) + 395.5 miles
22th Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) + 594.3 miles
24th Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) + 1094.5 miles

French skipper Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) extended his overnight lead to 30 miles at the front of the Vendée Globe fleet. Peyron has been putting in high average speeds through the hours of darkness, gaining 21 miles since last night’s 1900h GMT poll.

Canadian Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) restarted off Les Sables d’Olonne at 0100hrs GMT and faces a long, tough battle beginning again more than five days and 1277 miles behind the leaders, with light winds forecast.

Mike Golding (Ecover 3) remains best international skipper and gained a place overnight to lie tenth, also sailing consistently good speeds.

Loïck Peyron is quick and is setting a blistering pace on Gitana Eighty. These are the simple facts which the leading trio of contenders are having to live with at the top of the Vendée Globe fleet as they pass 115 miles or so west of the Canary Islands doing around 16-18 knots. Peyron, the only skipper in the fleet to have raced in the first edition of this race, has extended overnight, forging ahead at the front of a leading trio which comprises Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) to his east in third and Seb Josse (BT), to his west in second place.

There is now about 110 miles of lateral separation west to east between the tussling pair of Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air), 7th, Vincent Riou (PRB), 8th, in the west and Le Cam in the east.

Derek Hatfield has made about 40 miles since he started again in modest winds early this morning on Algimouss Spirit of Canada, after fixing rig and electrical problems. Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat). was sailing in light winds also this morning, making about 9 knots with over 1000 miles to catch on the leaders, after re-starting yesterday morning.

Mike Golding stepped back into the top 10 after a solid night on Ecover 3, returning the best averages of his immediate rivals, also making a small gain on the lead boats.

More information on the www.vendeeglobe.org website.