Sebastian Vettel finally wins Race of Champions
Four time Formula One champion and current Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel finally wins Race of Champions. He previously won ROC Nations Cup six times, together with Michael Schumacher, but never became Champion of the Champions. Until today. In the final round at London’s former Olympic Stadium Vettel beat Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen.
Through earlier stages Vettel was faster and successful than reigning World RX champion Petter Solberg, 2015 Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg and last year’s ROC winner David Coulthard. Kristensen beat Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr., former BTCC champion Jason Plato and 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series champion Alex Buncombe.
20 drivers competed at London’s Race of Champions. Eight of them had to qualify for Top 16 through the preliminary round. Drivers who dropped out were Jose Maria Lopez, Pascal Wehrlein, Mick Doohan and Jolyon Palmer. Drivers who progressed to Top 16 were Al Buncombe, ROC Factor winner Bradley Philpot, Andy Priaulx and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Buncombe beat Philpot and entered quarter-final, while Priaulx koncked out IndyCar star Hunter-Reay. German F1 stars Vettel and Hulkenberg were also successful in 1/8 finals, against Solberg and Daniel Ricciardo. Britain’s F1 star Jenson Button was eliminated by Felipe Massa. Scotland’s duel of Susie Wolff and David Coulthard finished with clean victory for F1 veteran. In the next two duels Kristensen and Jason Plato was faster than Nelson Piquet and Romain Grosjean respectively.
In the all-German quarter-final between Vettel and Hulkenberg Ferrari driver defeated Force India’s driver. After that Coulthard defeated Massa, with advantage of just 0.04s in second Heat. In the third quarter-final Plato ruined his chances against Kristensen in Heat 1 with a jump start, so he was penalized. Kristensen was fastest in Heat 2. In the last quarter-final Priaulx and Buncombe fought in three heats and Buncombe preveiled.
The first semi-final between Vettel and Coulthard was very exciting went to Heat 3, in which Coulthard made a mistake with jump start and handed the win to Vettel. Experienced Kristensen didn’t allowed surprises against Buncombe and progressed to final round.
