Portimao, Portugal - 21st May - The lone female pilot in the pack, Bimba Sjoholm easily beat her eight male rivals in the first of two races in the Algarve fishing town of Portimao, Portugal.

Under blue skies and glorious sunshine, the Team Sweden pilot chased Team Atlantic's Matt Palfreyman away from the grid but within two laps had overhauled the early leader who had to settle for third place after Team Qatar's Saleh Al Shamlan also overhauled the British driver.

It really was a case of them and us as the top four which included Mad Croc Filip Roms forged a big gap between themselves and Team Nautica's Tobias Munthe-Kass, Team China's Xiong Ziwei who were down a lap at the chequered flag after 20 laps while Abu Dhabi's Majeed Al Mansoori completed 18 laps and last place Christian Carlsen was on 17.

A huge crowd enjoyed the deck to deck racing in the early stages and after three races in 2011 it's going to take a very quick pilot to lower the colours of the Swedish girl.