For the second consecutive day, Gautier Paulin was the fastest on four wheels in the Africa Eco Race – now in the third stage, which on Thursday connected Mhamid to Oued Draa for a total of 462.7km timed.
On board an Apache inserted in the T3 class, the former motocross rider completed the course in 6h06m08s to surpass Heatcliff Zingraf (Casteu Trophy/Can-Am) by only 1m17s. The German prevailed in the T4 class, while Eric Schiano (Harmar’Team Racing/Polaris) was the strongest in the SSVs with the third absolute time.
Rui Oliveira (Old Friends Rally Team/Can-Am) and his teammate Carlos Vento followed, with Ricardo Sousa in sixth serving the same team. The best in the T1 class was Pascal Feryn (Feryn Dakar Team/Toyota), in ninth with a 14m08s advantage over teammate Koen Wauters in the same class. Tomas Tomecek (Promet Czechoslovak Group Team/Tatra) set the pace in the trucks, leaving Cédric Feryn (Feryn Dakar Team/GINAF) nearly half an hour behind.
In the overall classification, Paulin cemented his lead on four wheels by now being 3m35s ahead of Zingraf. Frédéric Henricy (AT4R/Polaris) rose to third and Vento is fourth ahead of Pascal Feryn – the strongest in the T1 class. Tomecek consolidated his lead in the trucks and now has a 52-minute advantage over Cédric Feryn in the “heavyweights”.
Top ten of Stage 3:
Top ten overall after Stage 3:
