despite major damage, Sébastien Simon narrows the gap on leader Charlie Dalin

Charlie Dalin, leader of the Vendée Globe for a week, lost ground again during the night from Sunday to Monday, and is now less than 200 nautical miles ahead of Sébastien Simon, when leaving the Indian Ocean.

Despite the major foil damage suffered during the weekend, Simon (Dubreuil group) continues to gain ground, and was 177.98 miles from the leading sailor at 7:00 a.m., some 60 miles less than the night before.

But he is not the only one to reduce the gap since Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), 3rd, and Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable), 4th, both came back to less than 500 minutes, thanks to an average speed greater than 21 knots over the last 24 hours, compared to 19 knots for Simon and 16.75 knots for Dalin.

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The latter, which has moved away from the Antarctic exclusion zone, is now almost vertically above Cape Leeuwin, in Australia, the entry point into the Pacific.

In the meantime, Monday morning, 36 of the 38 skippers were sailing in the Indian Ocean, the last two in the ranking, the Chinese Jingkun Xu (Team Haikou) and the Hungarian Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe) not having yet crossed the Cape of Bonne Esperance and therefore still being in the Atlantic.

. Ranking for the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe Monday at 7:00 a.m. (GMT+1):
1. Charlie Dalin (Macif Santé Prévoyance) 13,548.19 nautical miles from the finish
2. Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) 177.98 miles from the first
3. Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) at 378.16 miles
4. Thomas Rettant (Vulnerable) at 489.66 mins
5. Jérémie Beyou (Charal) at 812.34 mins
6. Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB) at 826.88 mins
7. Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) at 859.75 mins
8. Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) at 921.85 mins
9. Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq V) at 950.39 minutes
10. Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer) at 1,235.86 mins
…

Withdrawals: Maxime Sorel (V and B-Monbana-Mayenne), Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée)