Isidre Esteve faces a key event in Morocco before the Dakar 2027

The Morocco Rally, fourth round of the W2RC, will allow the Repsol Toyota Rally Team driver and his co-driver Txema Villalobos to add valuable kilometers in the face of the challenge of Saudi Arabia.

The team will test the work done in recent months with the Toyota DKR GR Hilux, powered by Repsol renewable fuel and lubricants.

“The tests we have carried out have been very positive and the goal is to reach the race with rhythm from the first day to be as competitive as possible.”

The Repsol Toyota Rally Team has everything ready to face its great challenge before the Dakar 2027. From September 29 to October 3, Isidre Esteve and his co-driver Txema Villalobos will compete in the Rally of Morocco, the fourth and penultimate round of the season of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC).

The team arrives in Morocco after an intense test program with the Toyota DKR GR Hilux of the Ultimate / T1+ category. After barely being able to compete with the new vehicle in the last Dakar, Esteve and Villalobos have worked during the last few months to better understand their possibilities and adapt their driving to their characteristics, with tests in France, Spain and two additional days in Morocco before the start of the race. The Hilux will continue to use the renewable fuel developed by Repsol in its Technology Lab and the latest generation lubricants of the multi-energy company.

“We have focused on discovering the potential of the car, understanding it, and adapting to it. We have done many kilometers in the tests, we have also had the support of the official team, and the engineers are helping us a lot. We want to get to the Rally of Morocco with rhythm and knowing that we have done everything necessary to be as competitive as possible,” explains Isidre Esteve.

The North African event will have a first-level inscription, with 104 cars spread between the Ultimate, Challenger, SSV, and Stock categories. The queen category will bring together a large grid of 56 vehicles – 48 of them T1 + -, with the best specialists in the discipline.

The route of the Rally of Morocco, 2,524 kilometers, will include 1,575 against the time trial and will combine sandy tracks, dune areas, and faster stretches over five stages, in an itinerary that will take participants from the Atlantic coast in Agadir to the Zagora Desert. In this way, the Moroccan race is presented as the perfect test of fire to calibrate the state of form of the team, which has the support of Repsol, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Spain, MGS Seguros, KH-7, and AD Parts.

Navigation will once again be one of the greatest demands of the appointment. “The sports director, Marc Coma, knows this discipline very well and is sure to prepare a rally different from the past editions. The key will be to keep the attention at all times and get the navigation right to make a good race,” says Esteve.

The Repsol Toyota Rally Team thus faces five days of competition with the aim of completing a solid rally and continuing to accumulate experience with the new Hilux before facing the great challenge of January.