Intro:

Armel Le Cleac'h passed the Australia West gate on Thursday at around 1944hrs UTC on its most westerly mark 21 minutes ahead of Francois Gabart, who was 18 miles to the east, but it is Gabart who has made the overnight gain as the Vendee Globe heads under Australia.
At 21 miles between Gabart's Macif and Banque Populaire of Le Cleac'h the gap is negligible, but the top two are always gaining miles on the fleet.

Script:

Over the last 24 hours the Vendee Globe leaders speed differential with the 11 skippers in pursuit has been of the order of three to six knots, on average.

As Francois Gabart and Armel Le Cleac'h count down the 360 miles to Cape Leeuwin, the second great cape, and beyond to the Australia East gate which is about 1450 miles ahead of them, there is now 220 miles between Jean-Pierre Dick in third and second placed Le Cleac'h.

The Virbac-Paprec skipper was less than 100 miles behind yesterday morning, and that gap is still opening.

The deltas to the runway duo make sombre reading. Bernard Stamm has lost 225 miles, Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss 162.

Over 72 hours Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre have lost close to 700 miles.

But to put it in a perspective Golding is now 1390 miles behind the leaders, the distance between Les Sables d'Olonne and Gibraltar, so understanding they are racing in entirely different weather systems.