Telefonica streak clear in Volvo Ocean Race

Telefonica were surging towards victory in the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on Friday with a huge lead over nearest rivals Camper and the finish line in sight after three gruelling weeks at sea. Telefonica, skippered by Spain's Olympic gold medallist Iker Martinez, enjoyed a lead of 134 miles over Camper, with just 588 nautical miles to go and a projected finish time of Saturday between 1500GMT and 2000GMT. Their lead is set to get bigger if weather forecasts are correct, with the breeze dropping off behind them and Camper not expected to finish until Sunday morning. Groupama, the final team still racing as a bruising leg comes to an end, are expected to finish between Monday and Tuesday. "Obviously there's a bit of a distance still until the finish," Telefonica navigator Andrew Cape said from the boat. "We just have to keep the boat in one piece and not break anything. The weather has decreased in wind speed, so it's looking unlikely we're going to break anything. Touch wood." If Telefonica go on to seal victory, they will go from bottom of the leaderboard to top, with 30 points for first to add to the one point they picked up for finishing last in the first in-port race in Alicante. Camper are on course to get 25 points for second place here, which will put them second overall with 29 points. Groupama will be third with a total of 22 points. The three teams forced to retire from leg one after suffering damage to their boats will not score points on this leg. That will leave Abu Dhabi on six points after winning the Alicante in-port race, followed by Puma on five and Sanya on three. Puma are facing a race against time just to be ready for the second in-port race on December 10 and the start of leg two to Abu Dhabi on December 11. They are currently heading towards the remote archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, while a container ship was due to leave South Africa on Friday to rendezvous there and take them back to Cape Town.