Team New Zealand lead in Marseille

Moody Marseille was in fiesta form for the second day of the Audi MedCup regatta as Emirates Team New Zealand piled on the pressure in conditions that recalled their home waters of the Hauraki Gulf but with even more sunshine.

With a first and two seconds to add to two firsts and a third in the opening three races, the Kiwis, after settling down in the first, Alicante, regatta have made themselves the team to beat early in their debut year. The boat was enjoying wind of up to 20 knots and it is not as though the crew, many of whom have been racing this circuit on other boats, lacks experience.

"The boat goes well at times, but I still think we can do a better job," said skipper Dean Barker. "The racing out there was fantastic, it was very close and we had a fun day."

Added coach Rod Davis: "We're reasonably quick, but we're not a rocket ship. Dean is getting off the start line pretty well and the boys are sailing consistently in a fleet where one boat length is a big deal."

Stuart Alexander talks to world match race champion Ian Williams.

There was even something to smile about for the British Cristabella team, having to use track time to learn about their replacement boat, the former Desafio Espanol. After a pair of last places in the two opening races of the day, they showed early pace, with world match race champion Ian Williams calling the shots, in the last race before finishing seventh.

The top four remain ETNZ, Argentina's Matador, the defending 2008 champion Quantum, and the Swedish boat Artemis and these four are expected to continue to dominate in what is scheduled to be a coastal race today (Friday) in what the organisers are promising will be a 25-knot Mistral wind.

A second consecutive podium place for Ian Walker and the Green Dragons, Kenny Read and his American team Puma pipping them by 56 seconds and so leapfrogging Bouwe Bekking's Telefonica Blue to move up to second overall and the Dutch team Delta Lloyd beating Telefonica Black by just 19 seconds to take fifth place all contributed to an exciting night in Marstrand for the Volvo round the world race.

The overall leader, Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael, scored its fifth leg win, but all seven finished the 1,200-mile leg from Galway within 80 minutes.

The race restarts for the next leg to Stockholm on Saturday and Marstrand counting as a pit-stop not a stopover, means that no repairs and maintenance can be undertaken on the boats.

With three scoring opportunities remaining, leg nine, an inshore race in Stockholm, and then the final, 400-mile sprint to St. Petersburg, E4 is in touching distance, but must wait to lift, the Fighting Finish trophy as overall winner of the 10-leg race which started in Spain last October.

But, with still only one point separating second and third, and with the Dragons having closed the gap to E3 in fourth to just 5.5 points, there are important positions still to be decided.