MADRID, 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish driver Isidre Esteve (Repsol Toyota Rally Team) has assured that this edition of the Dakar Rally has been the “most difficult” for him, especially due to the mechanical problems that he has encountered during the competition, and he has regretted the mishaps because He was convinced that he could “run a lot” and have been “better.”
“It has been the most difficult Dakar, for me and for the entire team. We have run a lot from the beginning, from the prologue stage, in every kilometer, but the mechanics did not accompany us and sentenced our race on a sporting level. We return with the feeling that it could have gone better, because we had worked hard to be as high as possible,” he said after landing this morning in Barcelona.
The driver from Ilerda, driving his adapted Toyota Hilux T1+ and with Txema Villalobos as co-driver, finished in 22nd position among the T1+ vehicles. “For us it has been important to finish every day, have all the waypoints (mandatory passing points) and always be at the end of each stage,” he said.
“The changes we had made in the Baja Aragón and the Morocco Rally, prior to the Dakar, had worked. From the prologue stage we saw that we could run a lot and, in fact, the partials were very good. That is why it tastes bad that then setbacks arise that we had not anticipated,” he added.
On the other hand, he highlighted the difficulty of the queen stage, the 48-hour time trial in the Empty Quarter. “We faced that stage with tremendous enthusiasm, because we had the rhythm. And the first part of it was great; we covered more than 400 kilometers, always riding in the group of the first 20-25. Then, when the next day the differential broke front in the most difficult part of the race, with 100 kilometers over supersoft dunes ahead, everything went wrong. If it was already difficult to cross the dunes when the car was going well, without the front differential it was impossible,” he noted.
“We got stuck in two places and it took us more than five hours to get the car out, each time. We told ourselves: no one will come to get us out; either we get out or we leave the car and go by helicopter. We decided to go step by step and get the car out as best we could. It became night and I think we made the good decision to stop to sleep, because in those conditions it was impossible to do the dunes in the dark. We got up at 5 in the morning, and a few hours later than the theoretical rest day we finally reached the goal,” he said. “Now we have to analyze what happened and how to avoid it for future editions,” he concluded.
Esteve has competed in 19 editions of the Dakar, 10 on a motorcycle and, following the spinal injury he suffered in a race in 2007, another nine by car. On two wheels, the one from Oliana added two fourth positions as his best results; by car, he finished 21st in 2018 and 2019, just outside the 'Top 20'.