Ferrari F1 driver Sebastian Vettel landed his maiden Race of Champions title at the Olympic Stadium in London.
Vettel topped a field of motor racing stars in identical cars in a track cycling pursuit style format.
The German, who captured four F1 titles for Red Bull, beat nine-times Le Mans 24 Hour winner Tom Kristensen in a best of three run-off in the final.
The individual success adds to Vettel’s previous ROC efforts in compiling six Nations Cup wins alongside Michael Schumacher for Team Germany.
“Of course I’m very happy and honoured to win – but that took a while,” Vettel said.
“A lot of world class racing drivers have won this trophy. I’ve tried to win this many times and failed many times but finally I’ve succeeded.”
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Vettel progressed to the final by beating the defending ROC winner David Coulthard in the semi-final 2-1 while Kristensen blitzed Alex Buncombe 2-0 in the other semi.
Earlier Team England 1 represented by Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato became the first English team to succeed in the Nations Cup final.
The pair prevailed over Team Germany’s Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg.
The Nations Cup sees drivers race an eclectic mix of cars that include a Mercedes AMG GT S, Ariel Atom Cup, Radical SR3, KTM X-Bow, ROC Car, Euro NASCAR, RX200 and RX150.
Team Australia’s campaign was thwarted by Germany with Mick Doohan Daniel Ricciardo losing 2-0 to Vettel and Hulkenberg in the quarter-final.
In the head-to-head section of the competition Ricciardo bowed out to Hulkenberg in the first stage.
GP3 Series
Marvin Kirchhofer and Luca Ghiotto shared honours in the two GP3 Series races in Bahrain.
Kirchhofer took the opening 20-lap race from Emil Bernstorff with Esteban Ocon third.
In the final 15-lap heat Luca Ghiotto chalked up win number five for the year, setting-up a cliffhanger finish to the season in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
The win gave Ghiotto a two-point lead over Ocon going into the series decider.
Ghiotto began stoutly and quickly assumed the lead beating home Ocon by 2.3s while Matt Parry held Bernstorff out of third.
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