Mattias Ekstrom: “In the end, I think it’s a fair result for us”

Dakar 2025 | Stage 12 | SHUBAYTAH > SHUBAYTAH
January 17 ^th 2025 - 14:26 [GMT + 3]

Mattias Ekstrom produced the best performance for the Ford M-Sport by climbing onto the podium for the Raptor’s debut on the Dakar, on his fourth participation and third in the Ultimate class.

“It’s my first Dakar podium in the Ultimate class and it’s very nice. It was a very challenging rally for all of us and I think Yazeed deserved to win. I’ve seen over the last five years how much he has been training and fighting. He’s a nice, humble guy and always very fair. I think he is a worthy winner. We tried our best to give him a fight, but this year we weren’t good enough… We had no technical issues over the whole race with the Raptor. It was in our hands to achieve the result and like I said we had an enjoyable ride and enjoyed the battle with Henk, Nasser and Yazeed… It wasn’t so easy because we didn’t have the real strategy flow in the team after Carlos dropped out and Nani had issues… In the end, Mitch did a good race for a first time, so I think we can be happy but to ask for more would have been cocky. I think it’s better to be humble and say it’s the first time on the podium… I’m happy, also Emil after Morocco and the incident… He broke a bone in his back there and had a very tough recovery… In the end, I think it’s a fair result for us… We have learned so much on this rally, so we will make the car better for next time…”