• The Repsol Toyota Rally Team is ranked 19th overall and in the Ultimate category in the ninth stage, just 22 minutes behind the first in a very fast special stage.
• The driver from Lleida and his co-driver Txema Villalobos have been fighting in the top 20 for the third day in a row with their competitive Toyota Hilux T1+.
• “We are very happy, because we have entered a very positive dynamic of results, pace, starting order, and we are looking forward to face what is left.”

Isidre Esteve is on a roll. The Repsol Toyota Rally Team has linked this Tuesday the third consecutive day fighting in the absolute top 20 of the Dakar. In a very fast special stage, between Riyadh and Haradh, of 357 kilometers timed, the driver from Lleida and his co-driver Txema Villalobos have raised the Toyota Hilux T1+ number 229 to the 19th position overall and in the Ultimate category, just 22 minutes behind the first. It is the best partial result of this Dakar for the driver supported by Repsol, MGS Seguros and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Spain.

“Another good stage. It was very, very fast, with a complicated navigation at the beginning, which we solved well. Then followed very fast tracks until kilometer 280. From there, the navigation was again very difficult, in some canyons and dry rivers. Txema was very accurate; we hesitated somewhere, that's normal, but we didn't get lost at any time”, describes the rider from Oliana, who is already 34th overall, 22nd in Ultimate.

Today's 19th position equals Isidre Esteve's second best partial result in his 10 Dakars in a car. It was in 2023, when he was also 19th on this same stage, between Riyadh and Haradh, in the Toyota Hilux T1+. The Spaniard's best finish in a stage in a car was 17th in 2021, on the fifth stage. However, the noticeable difference between those one-off feats and his performance in 2025 is the regularity and consistency that the Repsol Toyota Rally Team is showing this year. Esteve and Villalobos were 20th in the seventh stage; 21st in the eighth, and 19th in the ninth, today. Three days in a row inside or just outside the top 20.

“We are very happy, because we have entered a very positive dynamic of results, pace, starting order, and we are looking forward to what is left,” he says.

Isidre Esteve's satisfaction is a reflection of the progress of his performance on four wheels, and also of the great work carried out by the Repsol Toyota Rally Team throughout last year and during this Dakar. The competitiveness of the Toyota Hilux T1+ is proving to be the perfect complement to the driver's sporting ambition. The work of Repsol's Technology Lab, in developing fuel with 70% renewable components and the new renewable lubricant, shows that performance is not at odds with the commitment to decarbonizing top-level competition.

Furthermore, in the right-hand seat, Isidre Esteve has a valuable ally in the figure of Txema Villalobos, irreplaceable in his dual role as navigator and mechanic, capable of resolving any imponderable on the track.

So Isidre Esteve faces the final stretch of the Dakar full of morale and motivation as the caravan heads for the Empty Quarter. “Today one type of Dakar is over and tomorrow a totally different one begins. Everything that's left is 100% dunes; there are no tracks, there's nothing. We have a good car for this type of terrain and we will see what we are capable of doing”, ventures the driver.

On Wednesday, the stage will consist of a 520-kilometer long liaison in the direction of Shubaytah and a relatively short 120-kilometer special stage entirely on dunes.

Automatic translation of the Spanish version
Source: Repsol Toyota Rally Team / Mediagé Comunicación