MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Catalan driver Isidre Esteve, from Repsol Toyota, assured this Friday that he has competed “better than ever” in the 2025 Dakar Rally, with a pace that “has grown”, so they are “faster” and he has “more confidence in all surfaces”.
“We have competed better than ever. In no year have we been fighting so many times for the ‘top 20’, and more so in an edition in which there were five brands and more than 20 official drivers. We are happy to see that our pace has grown. We are more fast and we have more confidence on all surfaces,” he said in statements shared by Repsol.
Esteve completed the route this Friday and crossed the finish line in Shubaytah in his 20th participation – his 10th by car – in the Dakar. After 14 days of competition and 7,828 kilometers of travel – 4,906 timed, in 12 stages -, the Repsol Toyota Rally Team has qualified on the verge of the ‘top 20’ of the ‘Ultimate’ category, in 22nd position, and in the 32nd absolute.
The driver supported by Repsol, MGS Seguros and Toyota Gazoo Racing Spain accumulated 63 hours and 14 and a half minutes in the ‘raid’, although it was “a shame to have had a couple of mechanical problems” that cost them five hours. “In the Dakar, time cannot be recovered, and those hours have weighed us down. If not, we would be in 15th or 16th position overall. But we have to stick with the pace we are capable of and the intensity we we are able to print every day,” he insisted.
Furthermore, from the first stage, Esteve competed affected by a stomach flu. “That left me in a technical KO for four days,” the pilot acknowledged. “It has been a very intense Dakar every day, with very little mechanical assistance in the first week, because the 48-hour time trial and the marathon stage were almost consecutive. But I think a Dakar has to be like that,” he added.
That toughness highlights the Catalan’s partial results this year. In the ninth stage he was 19th; in the fourth and seventh, 20º; in the eighth, 21st, and in the penultimate, 23rd -and 14th in ‘Ultimate’-. “We are building a future to try to reach the top in the world of cars, and I think we are on the right path,” he concluded.