19 minutes over Gallas and 32 minutes ahead of Paulin.
STAGE 10 This long stage of the rally took in 445km of timed test through the multiple dunes. Paulin’ s MX experience paid off to give the Frenchman his third victory of the race with a healthy 8:24 gap to leap-frog him 1:25 into the lead of the overall. German Mike Wiedemann on a Tenere fought through to second with Botturi rounding out the podium. A 10th for Cerutti saw him drop to 6th overall with Botturi climbing to 7th. Leading the rally at the start of the day, Lepan had bad day losing over 54 minutes to stage winner Paulin.
STAGE 11 475km of very fast terrain with challenging navigation took riders from Ouad Naga in Mauritania to Mpal in Senegal. Cerutti turned his fortunes around, coming back to take the + 650 class win and 2nd overall behind stage winner Lepan who clawed himself back to third in the outright. Despite the Italian’ s speed moving him up to fifth overall ahead of Botturi
in 7th, consistent performances from Yamaha’ s Gallas and Paulin put the pair into first and second place in the overall standings with Lepan 15 minutes adrift, effectively calling the result as stage 12 is a liaison.
STAGE 12 The short run to Lac Rose carried tradition rather than tension as something of a ceremonial ride. Kevin Gallas rolled onto the Atlantic shoreline as Africa Eco Race 2026 champion, with 2025 car class winner Gautier Paulin completing a superb late-rally surge to second overall in a Yamaha onetwo finish. Frenchman Lepan’ s KTM 450 Rally in third place was the only single in the top eight. Previous winners Jacopo Cerutti and Alessandro Botturi battled through to 5th and 7th overall. The stage wins and lead changes swung wildly and it wasn’ t the expected riders who took the podium. The 2026 Africa Eco Race showed that although outright speed still counts, patience and building momentum through consistency is the recipe needed for success.
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