Race leader Telefonica of Spain stamped its dominance on the Volvo Ocean Race by winning yesterday’s in-port race in China despite having spent the previous two days changing the boat’s entire rigging.

World sailor of the year Iker Martinez and his crew were forced to sit out practice races on Thursday and Friday while his shore team hastily replaced their rigging after they found it failed to reach the correct tension.

With Leg 4 to Auckland in New Zealand approaching, with forecast gale-force winds and 30-foot waves, Martinez said the team could not afford to take any chances with its rigging, so decided on the eleventh-hour switch.

Such a late switch would have left most boats satisfied with a podium finish but the Spanish crew produced a near-perfect tactical race to beat Puma into second spot and post a win that would sap morale from the challengers.

“Today the tactics were what made the difference. We were really in the right place for the upwind legs and the first downwind too,” Martinez said. “Even if we weren’t great at maneuvers, we were in the right place and that’s what mattered.”

Puma skipper Ken Read briefly threatened victory when Telefonica fumbled a sail change but the Spanish retained a three-second lead before finding top gear again to win with a 41-second advantage.

The result extended Telefonica’s lead at the top of the standings to 18 points, after having won the first three of nine ocean legs in the 39,000-nautical mile, nine-month race.

Overall standings: Team Telefonica (Spain) 101, Camper/ETNZ (Spain/New Zealand) 83, Groupama (France) 73, Puma (U.S.) 53, Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.) (43), Team Sanya (China) 17.