Charlie Dalin's perseverance appears to have paid off. His yacht is now in the good winds and his speed has increased to around 20kts. He has all the advantage now of distance and speed. For this section anyway.
Alex is also in that wind stream now with the group trailing the three leaders. The reason he slowed down last night was to further reinforce the boat.
Update from Ross Daniel, Technical Director at Alex Thomson Racing:
“Yesterday evening, Alex decided to take advantage of the light conditions to further reinforce the repairs that he has done onboard HUGO BOSS in order to increase the safety factors before he enters the Southern Ocean.
“To do this, he had to slow the boat down slightly so that he could work in relatively stable conditions. With the new weather front crossing the fleet today, which will carry them south, Alex knew that last night would be his last opportunity to complete this reinforcement.
“This morning we’ve been able to take a good look at the work that Alex did overnight. It looks good and we are very happy with what he has been able to do.
“Alex is now back into racing mode and is preparing for the Southern Ocean”.
The other good news is that his speed has picked up to around 21kts. His max speed in the last hour was 27kts

He has a lot of catching up to do. The boat reports wind speed 15kts. Temperature cooler but mild. Notice how far South Charlie is.
Zooming out for the bigger picture. All competitors are being forced quite far South of the prescribed route in order to avoid the lengthened calm zone. If the favourable winds descend further South, in to the exclusion zone, they will be slowed down again. If this happens to Charlie first, the followers may catch up a bit. If he makes it through and that blue area descends behind him his lead will increase.