Mattias Ekstroem against a member of the Schumacher family always has a foregone conclusion: the Swede’s victory. It happened again today, on the final day of the 2023 Race of Champions which saw the Audi Sport driver triumph.
In 2007 and 2009 Mattias had beaten the 7 times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher in the final. Today, however, he got the better of Schumi’s son, Mick Schumacher, in the final act of the 2023 edition, who became the third Mercedes driver a few weeks ago after leaving Ferrari.
Thanks to today’s success Ekstroem joins Sébastien Loeb and Didier Auriol at the top of the classification dedicated to the most successful drivers of the Race of Champions with 4 victories.
On the Swedish snow of Pite Havsbad Ekstroem had to beat Travis Pastrana in the round of 16, in the quarterfinals he met his compatriot Johan Kristofferson, while the semifinal was unprecedented, considering the presence of Thierry Neuville.
Ekstroem beat everyone, reaching the final against Mick Schumacher. The German had just returned from the great victory in the all-German challenge against his friend Sebastian Vettel. The match between Ekstroem and Schumacher experienced tense moments when the Swede blamed him for a problem with his vehicle.
Ekstroem’s navigator ordered the Swedish driver to stop, but things went differently. The Audi Sport standard bearer continued and managed to win the Race of Champions for the fourth time in his career.
“My co-driver told me we should stop but I decided to keep going and it was worth it because we got the win,” concluded Ekstroem.
This individual success comes after the Nations Cup, in which the triumph was the Norway team made up of the entire Solberg family: Oliver and the 2003 WRC world champion, Petter.
The Solbergs had to work hard to win the second consecutive Nations Cup due to the fine opposition of the All Star Team made up of Thierry Neuville and Felipe Drugovich. In the final act, however, Oliver Solberg proved to be decisive for the result and the conquest of the cup.
