Isidre Esteve is now where he wanted to be. Where he was convinced he could be. Fighting in the group of drivers who, in each stage of the Dakar, start with the intention of mixing in the large leading group. The Repsol Toyota Rally Team has once again flirted with the absolute top 20, in a long special stage of 488 kilometers in which he barely conceded 20 minutes to the leader. In the overall, the Repsol, MGS Seguros and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Spain driver, and his co-driver Txema Villalobos, gained a handful of positions to place 38th overall, 25th in the Ultimate category.
“We had a good stage, with a very good pace, and Txema solved the navigation very well, which was complicated. I'm very happy, because getting back into the fight for the top 20 is very good. The car is working perfectly. We are looking forward to racing and improving the result every day”, says the driver from Oliana.
After the great result of the day before, the Toyota Hilux T1+ with the number 229 started 20th and stayed in the leading group during the whole special stage. And even came close to the top 10, as Isidre Esteve explains: “At the beginning we did very well with the navigation. It was difficult, but we were able to find all the points and we managed to ride eleventh. Then the special became very, very fast and we started to get caught behind”.
The time trial, between Al Duwadimi and the Saudi capital Riyadh, was so long that it took the Repsol Toyota Rally Team 5 hours, 12 minutes and 17 seconds to complete it. It had a bit of everything. Mainly very fast tracks, but also sand, dunes and rocky areas. “The last part of the special stage was very broken, inside an oued [dry river]. You had to be very careful with the car”, said Isidre Esteve, who was 7 seconds away from finishing in the top 20.
A second consecutive top 20 would have been great as a headline, but what is really remarkable is that Isidre Esteve and Txema Villalobos are totally involved in the race, the Toyota Hilux T1+ is working perfectly, and the whole Repsol Toyota Rally Team is contributing with its work to the good progress of the project.
And the best is yet to come, as the driver from Lleida says: “Now come the dune stages, which will be very good for us, because the Toyota Hilux is designed with this part of the race in mind”.
In this sense, Tuesday's stage, between Riyadh and Haradh, will still be a transition stage. It will consist of 357 timed kilometers, mostly on dirt tracks, before the dunes really come into play on Wednesday for the last three stages of the Dakar.
Automatic translation of the Spanish version
Source: Repsol Toyota Rally Team / Mediagé Comunicación
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