Hampshire sailor Alex Thomson holds a slender lead in the Barcelona World Race after a slow night on the water.

Gosport-based Thomson has been the frontrunner on the 23,000 mile, three month non-stop race so far, which sees the fleet of IMOCA 60 yachts travel from Barcelona and back to the Catalan city from west to east around the planet.

But overnight the group of eight boats almost ground to a halt off the coast of east Africa, as they approach the Canary Islands on the way down to the Cape of Good Hope on the southeast tip of the continent before turning east into the Southern Ocean.

The weak breeze meant the boats were travelling at just two or three knots at times and saw the second-place Neutrogena virtually neck-and-neck with Thomson and Pepe Ribes’ Hugo Boss yacht.

Earlier today Thomson had re-established a lead, with almost five nautical miles separating him and the Neutrogena.