Victory for Germany in ROC Nations' cup

Team Germany successfully defended their Nations' Cup title at the Race of Champions in Wembley Stadium. The pairing of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel returned for this year's challenge at the event. The two Formula One aces beat Team Scandinavia's Mattias Ekstrom and Tom Kristensen in the final at London.

Podium: Nations Cup winners Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel (Team Germany).

Photo by Gareth Fair.

The seven-time F1 champion raced alongside F1's youngest-ever race winner beating Team Ireland in the Nations' Cup first round, with Schumacher taking the win over A1GP Adam Carroll and Vettel defeating rally driver Gareth MacHale with relative ease.

The semifinal round saw the exit of F1 Racing Team Great Britain. Schumacher dispatched his former F1 rival, David Coulthard, driving the KTM X-Bow after Coulthard had an off, damaging the car in the process. Schumacher gave some excitement to the crowd by parking the KTM just before the finish line, waiting for the unfortunate Scotsman to recover to within sight of the line before he powered the car to victory.

Vettel completed the task for Germany by knocking out the British Touring Car 2001 champion Jason Plato while driving the RX150 buggy.

In the finale, Schumacher took to the wheel of a ROC buggy, driving against the eight-time Le Mans winner Kristensen. The race was close, with just 0.173s gap between the two champion drivers, with Schumacher taking the spoils.

As the second round started Ekstrom, the 2006 and '07 Race of Champions winner, crashed into the wall at the first corner but the Swede recovered brilliantly to defeat Vettel in the KTM cars and level the score.

Schumacher and former DTM champion Ekstrom would now have to do battle in the giant arena to claim the prize of the Nations' Cup title.

In a closely-fought race Schumacher was slightly ahead after the first lap and by the end of the second lap he had pulled away further to claim the Nations' cup title for Germany for the second year in a row.

Semi final, race 3: Michael Schumacher.

Photo by xpb.cc.

The Scandinavians, on their path to the final, earlier knocked out Team France in the first round when Kristensen beat World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller in the Fiat 500 Abarth and Ekstrom knocked out the current World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb in a Ford Focus rally car.

F1 Racing Team Great Britain defeated the All-Star team on their way to the semifinal, Coulthard and Plato beating Jaime Alguersuari, the British F3 champion replaced the injured F1 driver Mark Webber, and Troy Bayliss, an ace on two-wheels in top road racing competition.

Autosport Team Great Britain defeated Team USA when F1 driver Jensen Button and World Touring Car three time champion Andy Priaulx beat NASCAR ace Carl Edwards and drifting expert Tanner Foust. Both the American drivers had a unlucky time with Foust stalling the car on the line and Edwards having a coming together with the barriers.