Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE continues to improve on another breezy day at the Audi MedCup Portugal Trophy. Image copyright Richard Walch.
by Stephanie Nadin
Two more races and two fifth places today in Cascais: even if Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE doesn't have as much experience as the other TP52 teams regarding manœuvres and boat preparation, the French-German team's crew members continue to do a very good job on the races, and their fifth place in the provisional overall ranking proves that the team really got into this new game.
They said:
Jochen Schümann, Skipper: "it was a windy day and we had a lot of little breakdowns on our boat, making that we couldn't prepare our starts the way we wanted. But on the first race we sailed quite well in the middle of the fleet after a first good upwind leg, and then we made a big improvement downwind today, with a very good speed. Very similar situation in the last race where we came late on the start line because of a last minute repair, then we sailed a very good first upwind leg, being in 3rd position most of the race from there, but we encountered a problem with the spinnaker's tackle, and unfortunately two boats passed us before we got in control again. Still a good day for us in the end, because we had the potential to finish in the top 3 again in the last race."
Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE. Image copyright Richard Walch.
Christophe André, Grinder: "We are quite satisfied of the start we had on the first race, but not of the final result. On the second race we were really happy of the first three legs. But on the last leg downwind, we had a mechanical problem with a spinnaker tackle, and as it was very windy, we did a handling mistake on board, and lost control of the spinnaker for about one minute. And the boats are so close that we lost some places that could have been good for us to finish in the three firsts. So we are a bit disappointed, as we had the means to do a good second race, but we will have to be even more careful on the boat's preparation."
Only one race on the programme tomorrow: the "coastal race", with long legs hiking for the crew, and a lot of work on the boat speed.
Provisional overall standings after 7 races TP52 Series
1. Emirates Team New Zealand-26 points
2. TeamOrigin 1851-29 points
3. Synergy-34 points
4. Artemis-36 points
5. Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE-37 points
6. Quantum Racing-43 points
7. Cristabella-43 points
8. Luna Rossa-45 points
9. Matador-47 points
10. Bribon-57 points
11. Bigamist-67 points
Racing is live everyday on www.all4onechallenge.com/audia1 thanks to Audi MedCup TV's player. (First start 13h00 local time).
