New victory for Pierre-Louis Loubet in the Africa Eco Race. This Thursday, in the ninth stage, the Apache driver set the pace again, while his teammate Gautier Paulin took another step towards the final triumph.
Amodjar was the starting and finishing point of the 363.32km timed route. Loubet took 4h42m48s to complete it and thus surpassed Carlos Vento (Old Friends Rally Team/Can-Am) by only 36 seconds in a very close day. Both also won in their respective categories, T3 and T4.
Heatcliff Zingraf (Casteu Trophy/Can-Am) achieved the third time at 6m31s, followed by Portuguese Rui Oliveira (Old Friends Rally Team/Can-Am) at 6m31s from the winners and as the second in the T3 category. Paulin finished the stage in fifth place, so he gained more time on his pursuers in the overall classification. Namely, Pascal Feryn (Feryn Dakar Team/Toyota), who with the seventh overall time was the fastest in the T1 category. Tomas Tomecek (Promet Czechoslovak Group Team/Tatra) prevailed in the trucks, in 11th place.
With three stages to go, Paulin is leading the Africa Eco Race with a 3h54m58s margin over Feryn, with Vento in third. This trio also leads the T3, T1, and T4 classes, respectively. Tomecek is fourth in the trucks, with his main pursuer being Aad van Velsen (Van Velsen Rally Sport/Scania) at 2h13m03s. Between them in the overall auto/truck standings is the best SSV, Frédéric Henricy (AT4R/Polaris). Oliveira, the best Portuguese, is now ninth (second in the T3).
Top ten of Stage 9:
Top ten overall:
