Esteve Rabat
|
Date of birth: 5/25/1989 |
|
Honours
First Race: Rieju Cup 2002
First Grand Prix: GP de la Comunitat Valenciana 2005 125cc.
Total Grand Prix: 43 (125cc.)
Podiums: 1 (125cc.)
Sporting career
|
Biography
Like many children, Esteve Rabat’s dream began one 6th of January when he was three or four years old. That magical night, on which the Three Kings from the East bring gifts for Spanish children, they brought him his first bike, a Beta Gara 25cc on which he experienced his first mountain excursions every Saturday morning, accompanied as always by his father. On Sundays his bike was parked up and he switched to four wheels. His father, a big motorsports fan, who had even competed in cars, took him to the Catalonian karting circuit, next to the Montmeló circuit, every week, where Esteve clocked up his first kilometres. When he was five, he started to compete in kart competitions, although Saturday mornings continued to be reserved for his bike, be it the Honda Cup he was given later on, the Kawa 65cc, the Montesa Trial bike or the KTM 125cc, which he had between nine and twelve years of age.
However, in 2002 he decided that what he really wanted to do was race motorbikes, and therefore, he gave up karting and signed up for the Rieju Cup. That was his first experience in motorbike racing and he finished in the middle of the overall standings. The following year, he took part in the Honda XR400 Cup –which was held on different circuits across Catalonia- and in some of the races in the KTM 200 Cup, held across the country.
At the age of 14, he debuted in the Catalonian Motorcycling Championship, in the Supersport category, on a Honda CBR 600. In this same year, he also entered the CRF 450 Cup, winning some races and finishing third in the overall championship standings. He also took part in the KTM 200 Cup again, in which he won two events, but was unable to take part in all the races because they coincided with the other championships he was competing in. At the end of the year, and at fifteen years old, Esteve participated in two races in the Spanish Speed Championship on his Honda CBR 600.
In 2005, he attracted the attention of Raúl Romero’s BQR team, which set its sights on him for the Spanish Speed Championship (CEV), and on his Honda 125cc he stepped on to the podium in the race in Cheste. He also continued to compete in the Catalonian championship, winning some races, and also had the opportunity to take part in four races in the European Championship: Italy, Croatia, Hungary, and Germany, in which his best results were two fourth places.
Young and with a little experience, 2006 was undoubtedly the year that Esteve Rabat took off. The opportunity to make the jump to the Motorcycling World Championship arose in the Catalonian Grand Prix in 2006, when Aleix Espargaró, BQR 125cc rider, switched category to 250cc due to internal team changes, leaving one of the 125cc bikes free. Rabat made his debut in Catalonia on this bike and competed in the nine races left in the Motorcycling World Championship. In his first world championship race, and after achieving 19th place in the training sessions, he overtook seven of his rivals, but before completing the first lap, he fell to the ground. After four races, with two falls, he scored his first world championship points in the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he finished twelfth. One week later, in Phillip Island, he was knocked down mid race when he was once again fighting to finish in the points. In Motegi, he put in another good performance, finishing twelfth once again. In the penultimate race held in Estoril, luck turned its back on him. He touched one of his rivals in the final lap and crossed the finish line in sixteenth place. Two weeks later, he finished the world championship in the points, when he came in thirteenth.
At the same time, Esteve Rabat was already racing in the CEV, where he had a somewhat difficult start to the season due to his poor starts. In the first race, held in Albacete, after the first lap he crossed the finish line last, in spite of qualifying in second place. At the end of the race, he passed the chequered flag in fourth place with his tyres completely destroyed. The same happened in Jerez and Albacete. After improving his weak point in the following races, Rabat took at step forward. In Valencia he finished on the second step of the podium, and matched this result in the following race held in Montmeló. In the second visit to the Ricardo Tormo circuit, he took the victory, which he repeated in the final race held in Jerez and which was enough for him to finish as runner-up in the Spanish 125cc championship.
After his first experience in the world championship in 2006, Esteve Rabat confronted the 2007 season as an opportunity to continue learning as much as possible and do his best, thanks to the backing of a team like the Repsol Honda Team. After discovering the joys of countries like Australia or legendary circuits like Donington Park in 2006, he had taken advantage of the previous season to discover the rest of the circuits and learn how things work in a category with rivalry as strong as that in 125cc.
The Repsol rider started the year with a promising result in Qatar, finishing in the top ten. However, his nerves got the better of him in the second race, held in front of his home crowd at the Jerez circuit. The Repsol rider did not want to disappoint Spanish fans, and after discreet training sessions, he wanted to gain ground on the first two turns, with the unfortunate consequence that he fell after braking too late.
This was the trend throughout the season: excellent performances that even allowed him to finish the Chinese Grand Prix on the podium, mixed with disappointments, like the training sessions in France, where a fall kept him away from the circuits for two races, due to a fractured hand. His huge advance was cut short and just when there were quite a few races on the calendar. He missed the French races, as well as the Mugello Grand Prix, to return in Catalonia, but under form.
At the end of the year, good races in Valencia, and above all in Australia, allowed him to finish the world championship in eleventh place and tackle the following season with the experience of having fought at top level for an entire season. In 2008, the prospect of a change of brand brought further motivation to the Repsol rider. After Honda decided to stop development of the two-stroke bikes, the team switched to the, in theory, more powerful KTMs.
Rabat started the year with a collar bone injury in the first training session of the year held in Jerez in January. However, he was able to recover in time for the first race in Qatar; perhaps this was a sign that things were not going to be easy despite the change of bike. Throughout the season, he had some good races, in which he even fought for the podium, -in France or even victory in Holland-, but nerves or in some cases, bad luck, kept him out of the top positions. In the Catalonian Grand Prix, he experience his most distressing moment of the season, when after falling in the training session, the young rider hit his head and had to be put in a medically induced coma for a few hours. Fortunately, he recovered rapidly and in the following race in England, he was riding again, finishing in eleventh place.
At the end of the season, Rabat had scored in eight races, finishing the world championship in fourteenth place and announcing that in 2009 he would ride again with the team with which he made his world championship debut, BQR. Rabat now knows what it is to step on the podium and with another year’s experience and a powerful Aprilia; he hopes to be able to fight week after week to secure his position in the leading group in the category.
