 Ericsson 3 proved its endurance capablities in the longest stage
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Sweden's Ericsson 3 captured the fifth and longest stage of the Volvo Ocean Race from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro.
Headed by Sweden's Magnus Olsson, it completed the 12,300-mile leg in around 40 days and five hours, arriving at Guanabara Bay at 1048 GMT on Thursday.
That ended a run of successive stage wins for Spain's Telefonica Blue, which is now expected to finish last.
Ericsson 4, headed by Torben Grael, will see its overall lead increase if, as expected, it finishes second.
Only five of the original eight teams are contesting the stage, Dutch entry Delta Lloyd and Spain's Telefonica Black having skipped the leg, and Team Russia provisionally withdrawing from the event.
Telefonica Blue's hopes of recording a hat-trick of stage wins were severely dented at the beginning of the month when it broke its forestay off New Zealand.
The Volvo Ocean Race, which began in Alicante, Spain in October, concludes in St Petersburg, Russia, in June after nine months, negotiating 10 stages over 37,000 nautical miles.
The next stage will see the teams travel from Rio to Boston and will commence on 11 April.
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