16/12/2012
NEWS STORY
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Romain Grosjean has won the Race of Champions, while Germany, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher, wins Nations Cup for sixth successive year.
Grosjean put in a stunning performance to eclipse 15 fellow superstars of motorsport and win the Race Of Champions at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium.
Following Team Germany's victory over Team France in Saturday's ROC Nations Cup, the Race Of Champions pitted many of the biggest names in motorsport against each other in head-to-head combat in a variety of different cars.
In the end Grosjean overcame Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen in the best-of-three Grand Final to become Champion of Champions for the first time. Kristensen, who also reached the final last year, was chasing his own first individual Race Of Champions title at the 12th attempt. But he was thwarted by the young Frenchman, who won both heats to seal glory.
"That's what I'd call a crazy day!" said Grosjean. "It got a bit tough in the group stages but I managed to make it through. Then I had to face Sebastian Vettel in the quarter-final before Michael Schumacher in the semi-final - the two Germans who beat us in yesterday's ROC Nations Cup final. Then I had the final with Tom. We've had a good history at this event and I've raced him before so it was good to face him in the final. I got a bit of extra luck to be in the right car at the right time but it felt good.
"It's been a tough end to the F1 season but I finally got back on the podium yesterday, and now this! It's great to get this win before I head off for a holiday. Thanks to everyone in Thailand because the welcome has been fantastic."
Beaten finalist Kristensen has competed in 12 Race Of Champions events, more than anyone else in the field. The 45-year-old Dane nonetheless hopes to be back for more.
"This was the 25th year of the race and Romain is a deserving winner," said Kristensen. "He had a very good Sunday - and I'm getting closer every year! It was a small gap between us in each of the heats and I made small mistakes but that's the challenge of the Race Of Champions: to jump into different cars. Earlier I had a pretty fun run in the Audi against Ogier. I believe that was the fastest lap of the weekend so that's what I'll take away. Even though I'm a bit more than 25 years old like Romain, it shows I'm still pretty fast if I'm in a good car. This has been the warmest Race Of Champions I have competed in - both literally and thanks to the people who welcomed us and enjoyed having us here. I'm still young so maybe one day I'll get the chance to win it!"
Michael Schumacher seemed to be continuing where he left off on Saturday as he went undefeated until the semi-final stage. There he came up against an inspired Grosjean and his quest for the individual ROC title faltered again. Schumacher's fellow F1 old-timer David Coulthard was beaten by Kristensen in the other semi-final.
After sharing in Schumacher's success last night, 2012 F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in the individual quarter-finals for the second year in a row, also by Grosjean. Facing a tight battle, Vettel made a mistake and hit the barrier hard.
Another big scalp at the quarter-final stage was last year's Champion of Champions Sébastien Ogier, beaten by Kristensen in a reverse of the result of last year's Grand Final. Coulthard defeated China's Ho-Pin Tung while Schumacher overcame 500cc MotoGP legend Mick Doohan in the other quarter-finals.
To start the evening the drivers were split into four groups of four, battling for the right to line up in the knockout stages.
Reigning champion Ogier began in dominant fashion, taking three wins out of three in Group A. Coulthard also progressed thanks to his two wins against V8 Supercar king Jamie Whincup and Production World Rally Champion Benito Guerra. Whincup beat Guerra but neither driver made it any further.
Tung was the surprise package of Group B. After falling to an initial defeat against touring car great Andy Priaulx, the Chinese driver recovered to top the group, beating Kristensen and home favourite Nattavude Charoensukawattana. The Thai prompted one of the night's biggest cheers when he defeated Priaulx, meaning the last quarter-final berth was decided by a shootout between Kristensen and Priaulx. That went to the Dane when a mechanical problem sent Priaulx into the barriers.
Vettel made a predictably strong start, romping to three wins out of three including a victory over 2012 MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo. Group C also included another legend of two wheels in Doohan, who defeated Lorenzo in their heat. The Thai crowd went wild as Tin Sritrai beat Lorenzo and crossed the line ahead of Doohan, only to miss out on qualification due to a time penalty.
Schumacher and Grosjean both progressed comfortably from Group D - but it was the German who came out on top this time to keep his undefeated record intact with three wins to Grosjean's two. 2012 IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay took a single victory against Kazuya Ohshima, Japan's qualifier from ROC Asia, but it wasn't enough to keep the American in the competition.
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On Saturday, the legends from many of the world's biggest motor sport series had teamed up in pairs to battle for national pride. They raced a mix of cars - including the Audi R8 LMS, VW Scirocco, Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo and the Toyota GT86 - on a purpose-built parallel track at the Rajamangala Stadium.
To cap off a busy night of action, Schumacher and Vettel prevailed in the Grand Final against Team France's Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean. First Schumacher defeated Grosjean then Vettel beat rally ace Ogier in the 'battle of the Sebs'.
The result meant that the German duo took an incredible ten wins out of ten on the night, matching their combined total of F1 world championships. They have now extended their record of ROC Nations Cup titles to six in a row too.
"This is a historic day," said Schumacher. "It was already very special to win five times in a row but this new record just feels great. The Race Of Champions is a nice event with a nice set-up, there are great guys here and tough competition. We were pretty scared of the guys on Team France but in the end they lost time in the final heats so we were lucky to be consistent the whole way through."
"Even Michael hasn't managed six titles in a row before so this is something special," added Vettel. "Six years is a long time and now we can look back and know we've won for the last six years. We all love coming here as it's a special event. It's a privilege and an honour to race with these guys. There's one thing that connects us all, which is racing. Now I can look forward to tomorrow and hopefully stay in the competition as long as possible. I've tried that for the last five years and haven't succeeded yet so it would be nice to put my name on that trophy too."
Beaten finalists Team France also had a fine evening, topping their group before defeating Team All Stars (Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen and MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo) by two heats to nil in the semi-final.
"We knew going up against Team Germany was the toughest moment of the evening," Grosjean admitted. "But we fought as well as we could with what we had in our hands. Last year we reached the semi-final, this year the final. Now the next step is to be on the top of the podium. They want to go for seven next year but we want to go for our first one in the future. For now it's great to have brought the blue, white and red flag to the final."
Reigning individual Champion of Champions Ogier said: "First I want to congratulate Team Germany because six victories in a row is a great result. We tried our best but they were very strong. We will try to do better next time."
In the semi-finals Team Germany beat Team Australia's Jamie Whincup and Mick Doohan by two heats to nil. They had earlier sailed through their Group B with six wins out of six to kick off their perfect night. Team Australia joined them in the semi-finals with three victories: two for Whincup, one for Doohan.
Following their triumph in Friday's ROC Asia, Team India's Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok failed to make it beyond the group stages this time. They took a win apiece but it wasn't enough against the might of Germany and Australia.
Host nation Team Thailand (Nattavude Charoensukawattana and Tin Sritrai) fought hard but they were unable to progress beyond the group stages. Sritrai nonetheless gave the home fans something to cheer with victory over Doohan.
Earlier in the evening, Team France (four wins) and Team All Stars (three wins) both progressed through the round-robin Group A to line up a best-of-three semi-final. Lorenzo memorably proved his two-wheeled skill extends to four wheels by defeating touring car great Andy Priaulx in one of the heats.
Team Americas were unlucky to miss out on qualification on count back of fastest times as they also ended up with three wins courtesy of Benito Guerra (2) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (1). Team Great Britain (Priaulx and David Coulthard) missed a semi-final spot after both fell foul of penalties for touching the barriers - though they still took one win each.