On the first day of the Race of Champions, ten teams competed for the Nations Cup, and after a 21-year hiatus, the trophy went to France – in 2025, it was Sébastien Loeb and Victor Martin. And the events on the track at Sydney's Accor Stadium unfolded like this…
In Group A, the teams from Finland, the All Stars team and the French duo competed for a place in the quarter-finals.
The Republic of Finland was represented by Heikki Kovalainen and Valtteri Bottas, while Team All Stars was represented by Sweden's Johan Kristoffersson and Australia's Chaz Mostert.
The first duel was between Heikki and Johan, and the experienced rally driver Kovalainen emerged victorious, although they competed in rallycross cars, much more familiar to the Swede, a five-time world champion in this type of motorsport.
Then Australian Chaz Mostert and Valtteri Bottas took to the start line, and they were driving Subaru sports cars – and here the Australian Supercars driver was much faster, he was the first to cross the finish line a full one and a half seconds ahead of the Finn.
The third race saw two rally drivers facing off, the difference between them being the number and, perhaps, the quality of their titles: Sébastien Loeb is the most famous representative of this sport, and his opponent was Kovalainen, who had won the Japanese national championship a couple of times. And here the victory went to Loeb, he was 0.9 seconds faster.
The fourth pair was between Bottas and Victor Martin, the second driver of the French team, who competes in Formula 2. And Valtteri lost again, although during the race it seemed that he was slightly ahead of the young Frenchman, but he pulled himself together and made up ground in the last few corners.
Then Loeb and Kristoffersson, the famous rally driver and no less famous rallycross master, took to the track. Sebestyen did not disappoint and beat his rival by 0.3 seconds.
The final race featured Mostert and Martin, and Victor took his second victory, this time with an even more convincing advantage of 0.7 seconds.
Thus, the winner of Group A was Team France, Team All Stars took second place, and Team Finland ended up in 3rd, last place and was eliminated from further competition.
Group B featured teams from Australian Masters Supercars, Australian Masters Off-Road Racing and Team New Zealand.
First to the start were the representatives of the Southern Hemisphere countries on the interesting Austrian KTM X-Bow Comp R machines, and the race was dictated by Will Brown, the Supercars champion – he easily beat Hayden Paddon, the New Zealand rally champion.
In the second race, the Toyota sports cars were driven by 17-year-old Louis Sharp, a New Zealand Formula 3 driver, and Brodie Kostecki, a Supercars star, who emerged victorious.
The third pair was Will Brown and his compatriot Molly Taylor, who competes in the Extreme E series – Brown again proved to be clearly stronger.
The competition was then continued by Toby Price and Brodie Kostecki, two Australians representing different racing disciplines, rally raid and circuit racing, and Brodie took a confident victory.
The next race in this group saw the KTMs of Hayden Paddon and Molly Taylor, who fought until the final corner but was again beaten.
In the final pair, Toby Price and Sharp competed in white Toyota GR86 sports cars, and here the forces seemed equal, but Toby still overtook the young racer, although only by a couple of hundredths.
Following the results of Group B, Team Supercars advanced to the quarter-finals, the New Zealand duo took second place, and the Australia Off-Road team came in last.
In the first race in Group C, Sebastian Vettel and Travis Pastrana met, and the four-time world champion confidently won, despite the fact that the American, in fact, did not make it to the finish line, since he crashed into a barrier. Incidentally, this was the first accident in the Nations Cup races, but not the last.
The second race was between Kurt Busch and Mick Schumacher, i.e. the second pair of the US and German teams. They piloted light Polaris SUVs, and the former NASCAR champion won.
Next up on the track in rallycross cars were David Coulthard and Vettel, and Sebastian beat his former Red Bull teammate, despite the Scottish veteran having had a better start.
The third pair in Polaris buggies was Mick Schumacher and Alister McRae, Coulthard's teammate in Team GB. This time Mick did not disappoint and won, which allowed the German team to take the lead, but the battle on the track continued.
David Coulthard and Travis Pastrana were both piloting rallycross cars in the event, and the American was quicker than the Formula 1 veteran, beating him by four tenths. That meant that the German and American teams now had two wins each.
The next pair was Busch and McRae, and the Scottish rally driver finished the first lap with a noticeable advantage, but lost it on the second, so the American duo took their third victory, and the British team lost all chances.
The German and American representatives now had three wins each, but Vettel and Schumacher had beaten their rivals with a big time advantage, so the German team formally led this group, and in the quarter-finals it had to measure its strength with the team of Australian off-road racing masters.
The French were scheduled to battle the New Zealanders in this round, while Team Australia Supercars would face the US team.
But the first to start in the quarter-finals were Norway's Peter Solberg and Sweden's Chris Kristofferson from the All Stars team, two famous Scandinavians – and the Swede won at the wheel of rallycross cars.
The next race saw Peter's 23-year-old son Oliver Solberg and Chaz Mostert compete in Toyota GR86 sports cars. The Australian won, which ensured the All Stars team would reach the semi-finals. However, Team Norway failed to repeat the success of the previous Race of Champions, when they won the Nations Cup.
Then it was the turn of the next pair – Sebastien Loeb and Hayden Paddon took to the track in a Subaru BRZ, and the nine-time World Rally Champion took another victory.
The next duel involved Victor Martin and Louis Sharp from the New Zealand team. And here the Frenchman overdid it, touched the barriers, for which he was fined. And although he won this race, the question of the French team's entry into the semi-finals was still open.
Will Brown and Travis Pastrana made up another pair, meaning that the Australian and US teams were already fighting for a place in the semi-finals. The home team representative won, especially since Pastrana made a mistake and his Pollaris spun in one of the turns. But he amused the crowd, since in that episode he had to do “donuts” and smoke his tires.
Kurt Busch and Brodie Kostecki then took to the track in their FC2 all-wheel drive rallycross cars, and once again, to the delight of the Australian crowd, the local driver prevailed. This meant that the Australia Supercars team advanced to the semi-finals, and the American duo were eliminated from the competition.
So far, the only confirmed semi-finalists were this team and the All Stars duo.
When Sebastian Vettel and Molly Taylor hit the track, the four-time Formula 1 champion drove a little more confidently and won the race with a very small advantage of 0.2 seconds at the wheel of a Subaru. Now the German team's passage to the semi-finals depended on the outcome of the duel between Mick Schumacher and Toby Price, the winner of the Dakar, and they piloted a KTM X-Bow.
The Australian motorcyclist was slightly faster, meaning that the German and Australia Off-Road teams had another race ahead of them, in which Vettel would measure his strength against Price. But that happened some time later, and in the meantime, the famous British stuntman Terry Grant entertained the crowd with his tricks.
The next race in Toyota sports cars saw Loeb and Sharp, a rally veteran and a very young driver, take to the track, and the nine-time world champion took an important victory that allowed the French team to reach the semi-finals, where they would have to compete with the All Stars.
“How old are you?” Sebastien asked his young colleague, who smiled sheepishly and said that he was “already seventeen.”
Vettel and Price then took to the track in FC2, and the Australian hit the barrier, while Sebastien won the race, which ensured the German duo a place in the next round. And there his opponents were the masters of the Australian Supercars championship.
There is a very friendly atmosphere behind the scenes at ROC, and before the main Nations Cup races the German riders chatted cheerfully with Brown and Kosteki like old friends, although they probably only met yesterday.
In the first semi-final race, the rear-wheel drive Supercar Lite Rallycross cars were driven by Victor Martin and Chaz Mostert, and the French driver took the victory.
The second pair was Loeb and Kristoffersson, both riding KTMs. The Swede started a little better, rode very aggressively – and won. So there was still one more decisive race ahead, which would determine which team would make it to the final.
Meanwhile, the next pair, Mick Schumacher and Brody Kostecki, were preparing for the start, competing behind the wheel of Polaris rally-raid cars, the smallest cars in the ROC arsenal. Mick drove the first lap with a slight advantage, but the Australian came out of the last corner of the second lap better, which allowed him to take the victory.
Vettel and Brown then piloted the KTM, and by this time it had started to rain, which added extra intrigue to what was happening on the track, which had become more slippery. And in these conditions, Sebastian showed his skill, winning the race. This meant that he had to compete with Brody Kostecki at the wheel of the Toyota for a place in the semi-finals, but for now it was the turn of the duel between Victor Martin and Johan Kristoffersson.
They piloted the Subaru on an increasingly slippery track and Victor took the win, making the French team the first finalist.
The next round saw the second finalist of the Nations Cup determined, and it was the Australia Supercars team, which, of course, was met with a deafening ovation from the crowd in the stands.
Due to the rain, which complicated the situation on the track, the race organizers decided to remove the chicane, made of lightweight plastic blocks. In the first final race on Polaris, Sebastien Loeb and Will Brown competed, and the Australian won with an advantage of more than half a second. Now much depended on the outcome of the duel between Victor Martin and Brody Kostecki, who, let us recall, was included in the ROC participants literally at the last moment, but was able to reach the final.
They competed in all-wheel drive FC2s, and at first it seemed that Victor was falling behind, but towards the end of the second lap he made up ground thanks to a completely desperate jump from a bridge, which allowed him not only to reduce the gap, but also to gain an advantage literally on the last straight.
So, the fate of the Nations Cup was to be decided by a race involving Martin and Brown – this time they were piloting rear-wheel drive rallycross cars. And again, Victor somehow miraculously bounced back, although after the first lap he was clearly behind his rival.
In general, if Martin has not had much luck in Formula 2 recently, then in the Race of Champions he distinguished himself at the first attempt, and the French team became the strongest in the Nations Cup.
The last time this country achieved such success was more than 20 years ago: in 2004, the Nations Cup was won by Jean Alesi and the then young Sebastien Loeb.
“An amazing win!” commented Sebastien immediately after the finish of the decisive race. “Victor did an incredible job, beating all these fast guys, even though it was his first time in the Race of Champions, and we won the Nations Cup! It’s a really great moment!”
Tomorrow, the ROC competitors will continue to compete on the track laid out at the Accor Stadium in Sydney, with individual races taking place on the second day of the weekend, which will determine the “Champion of Champions”.
Source
