2010 Race of Champions: Filipe Albuquerque Champion, Germany Wins Nations Cup [w/ video]
Source:
Race of Champions | Published:
Sun Nov 28, 2010
Filipe Albuquerque delivered a thrilling performance to eclipse 15 superstars
of motorsport and win The Race of Champions at his first attempt on an exciting
afternoon in Düsseldorf.
In front of a packed ESPRIT arena the Portuguese
driver overcame World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb 2-1 in the best-of-three
Grand Final on the specially-constructed parallel track to earn the title of
Champion of Champions.
Following Team Germany's win last night in the ROC
Nations Cup, The Race of Champions pitted 16 of the biggest names in motorsport
against each other in head-to-head combat in a variety of different cars.
ROC South Europe winner Albuquerque's route to the final took him past
Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel in a very tight semi-final following
his quarter-final triumph against fellow Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente.
Loeb reached the Grand Final courtesy of a quarter-final win over eight-time
Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen followed by victory against would touring car star
Andy Priaulx in the powerful Audi R8 LMS.
In another quarter-final, an
epic clash saw home favorites, and F1 rivals, Vettel and Schumacher clash in KTM
X-Bows. Victory went to the younger man by just over half a second. Priaulx beat
Bertrand Baguette in the other last-eight tie.
Earlier today, the action
began with a bang in the round-robin group stage, which featured four groups of
four drivers fighting it out for the right to line up in the knock-out
quarter-finals.
In the very first race of the day, Heikki Kovalainen
suffered a huge accident after the chequered flag when his Audi R8 LMS ploughed
through the barriers and hit the concrete wall hard.
The F1 driver
escaped injury but needed a precautionary visit to a local hospital for checks
which prevented him taking any further part. He and Jeroen Bleekemolen were
eliminated from Group A as Loeb and Baguette progressed.
Group B saw motorcycling hero Mick Doohan miss out along with Travis
Pastrana, who suffered a stall, a last-corner defeat and a spin in his three
races. Priaulx won all three races while Kristensen also went through.
It
was close too in Group C, where Albuquerque and Vettel took the top two spots,
knocking out NASCAR front-runner Carl Edwards and X-Games gold medallist Travis
Foust.
The final group of the first round featured an incredible combined
11 F1 world championships and Schumacher beat Alain Prost by just over a second
in a closely-fought contest in the ROC Car.
Schumacher won all three
first-round races with Parente going through as runner-up. Current British
touring car number one Jason Plato missed out, as did Prost, who spun out of his
last race in the KTM X-Bow.
Germany Wins 2010 ROC Nations Cup
Local heroes Team Germany defeated Team GB in the final 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 yesterday evening.
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.
Fans will also remember the retired female
rally driver Michele Mouton, but unfortunately this time not because of her
stellar drive. As you can view in the video below, she rolled her Audi Sport
Quattro S1.
A total of 64,052 fans attended The Race of
Champions during the course of the weekend.