The all-female crew had been involved in a tense battle with Jez Fanstone's wounded Team News Corp in the final few miles up the Brazilian coast.

But they were forced to park up in a calm for several hours on Wednesday night and lost ground with the tide.

Team News Corp, which lost its rudder on Valentine's Day, finished in sixth with a makeshift steering device on Wednesday evening.

Amer Sports Too trailed from the start of the leg out of Auckland after ballast problems on the first night.

McDonald said: "We saw everything on this leg icebergs - Southern Ocean storms, heat and calm.

"At Cape Horn we were 460 miles behind the main pack and we managed to come back to within 70 miles two days ago.

"We were pushing the boat as hard as we could. The energy of this crew is unquestionable."

Illbruck claimed victory in the fourth leg of the round-the-world competition in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The chasing pack all finished within three hours of each other, with Knut Frostad's Djuice coming in second, four hours adrift followed by Tyco, Assa Abloy and Amer Sports One.

Gunnar Krantz' SEB continues its journey on the back of the container ship BBC Anglia following its re-direction into a Chilean port after losing the rig in the Southern Ocean.

SEB is expected in Rio on 24 February. Illbruck now leads the overall standings with 29 points and three leg wins.

Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One is second on 22 points with Neal McDonald's Assa Abloy - winner of leg three - two points further adrift in third.

Leg five of nine is set to leave Rio for Miami on 9 March.

The race is scheduled to finish in Kiel, Germany in June.