Germany wins ROC Nations Cup again

— Team Germany, featuring new Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel and seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, beat Team GB’s Jason Plato and Andy Priaulx in the final to win ROC Nations Cup

— Vettel and Schumacher win the prestigious trophy for an incredible fourth time in succession

— Multiple World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb and F1 legend Alain Prost eliminated in semi-finals, along with Team Benelux (Jeroen Bleekemolen & Bertrand Baguette)

Local heroes Team Germany defeated Team GB in the final tonight to win the ROC Nations Cup in Düsseldorf after a thrilling contest featuring the world’s top motorsport stars.

Legends from all aspects of motorsport did battle for national pride in the ROC Nations Cup, behind the wheel of various vehicles, including the awesome Audi R8 LMS, on a purpose-built parallel track at the ESPRIT arena.

The ROC Nations Cup trophy has been won for the last three years by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher for Team Germany and they did not disappoint a big crowd tonight.

Schumacher squared up against Team GB’s Plato in identical KTM X-Bows for the first race of the best-of-three final and made the perfect start, winning by just under two seconds.

The action switched to Audi R8 LMS cars for the second race, which Priaulx won to keep the contest alive and set up a head to head with Schumacher for the title.

An incredibly tight deciding race in ROC Cars saw Schumacher narrowly defeat Priaulx and clinch Team Germany’s fourth ROC Nations Cup crown to the acclaim of their home fans.

Earlier in the evening, Team GB as group winners and runners-up Team France progressed through the round-robin Group A to line up a best-of-three semi-final.

Team Nordic, featuring Tom Kristensen and Heikki Kovalainen were eliminated on the tie-breaker of combined times while Alvaro Parente hit a wall in a KTM X-Bow as he and Team Portugal team-mate Filipe Albuquerque were knocked out.

In the first semi-final, Team GB prevailed in two races, with Plato beating Alain Prost in a VW Scirocco before Priaulx just finished of Loeb in a Porsche 911 to eliminate Team France.

In the other group, Team All Stars (Mick Doohan & Tanner Foust) and Team USA (Carl Edwards & Travis Pastrana) were knocked out as Team Germany and Team Benelux set a semi-final date.

In that contest, the home fans were given a performance to remember as Schumacher beat Bertrand Baguette in a ROC Car while Vettel followed that up with an immensely popular win over Jeroen Bleekemolen in a KTM X-Bow.

Additional entertainment tomorrow is provided by Vettel, who will perform a demonstration run in his world championship-winning Red Bull Racing car.

Michael Schumacher: "It’s special because we had won this 3 times in a row already. To win a 4th here in Germany is fantastic. The crowd were very supportive and with Sebastian having won the F1 title it was even more emotional. After the group stages we needed to wake up, but in the final against the British guys I thought we had a good chance. We had a good, friendly rivalry the last few years and tonight was fun."

Sebastian Vettel: "It’s been great for the fans here. We had a roof too so people didn’t freeze their b**** off. At first I thought we were out in the first round, but we made it by
seven tenths of a second. Did I need luck to win? I was lucky to have Michael!"

Andy Priaulx: "It’s a shame to lose in the finals, but at least I’ve beaten F1 world champion Vettel.
Not bad for an old touring car driver!"

Jason Plato: "It’s been great to take on the legends of the sport. Thank you to Fredrik Johnsson, Michèle Mouton and the entire Race of Champions team. Now I think we deserve a beer at the bar!