The Blue Oval has two dogs in the fight for Rally Morocco: Carlos Sainz Sr. and Matthias Ekström, both in command of Ford Ranger Raptor T1+ racers. However, things got off to a rocky start for the Sainz team – his Ford Raptor suffered technical issues that kept it out of the rally’s second stage.
Sainz’s Ford Raptor, which was built in cooperation between M-Sport and Ford Performance, turned up with a mechanical problem when he got it started for the second stage, as per a report from Dirtfish. Because he was unable to compete, Sainz has no chance of winning Rally Morocco, which is considered the prelude to the 2025 Dakar Rally.
“Unfortunately, this morning, I fired up the car and we saw an issue with the data,” Sainz said. “The team decided to check it properly and not take the risk to go out with the car and break something at this point of the rally, or of our preparation, [which] is not the right thing to do. We decided to quit and this is what we are doing.”
He added, “I hope I can continue tomorrow and put in some mileage in the car. Yesterday [first stage] was a positive day even if we still have some small issues. We are happy in general, so let’s see how Mattias [Ekström] goes today and see if he can win the stage.”
At this time, M-Sport and Ford Performance have not revealed what exactly went wrong with Sainz’s Ford Raptor, or if the team expects to have it fixed before rejoining the race.
Meanwhile, Ekström pulled off the 10th-fastest time in his Ford Rapter racer, but he was able to secure a seventh-place overall position when Mathieu Serradori’s Century CR7-T abruptly fell off the pace.
With any luck, The Blue Oval will have the problems solved before the 2025 Dakar Rally, which will pit Sainz and Ekström against the field next year.
No Comments yet