France win the ROC Nations Cup

Victor Martins and Sebastian Loeb have won the Race of Champions Nations Cup for France against the Australian Supercars team of Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki.

In the Final, it looked Australia would win, when Brown beat Loeb in the first of the three races. However from there, Martins put everyone on notice, as the F2 driver took down the previous two supercars champions.

Against Kostecki, Martins had to win to keep France in the game. He delivered and tied the final at one a-piece.

Then Will Brown stepped back into his car to face the young Frenchman. It was close, but Martins was able to get ahead of Brown heading down the straight, and got to the line ahead of the Red Bull driver.

While France won the game there was plenty of action across the entire night at Accor Stadium;

Group Stage

The first shock of the night came in Group A, when Martins beat Valtteri Bottas, to deny Finland progression into the next round. It become a battle for first place between France and the All-Stars, (Chaz Mostert and Johan Kristofferson) . France would win twice to take top spot, meanwhile the All-Stars would finish second.

In Group B, Australia Supercars would go four from four in their group. A battle between Australia Off-Road, (Molly Taylor and Toby Price) and New Zealand, (Louis Sharp and Hayden Haddon) went right to the wire. In the final tie of Group B, Toby Price got the better of Sharp, but New Zealand went through anyway with a faster lap.

Then Travis Pastrana hit the wall to begin Group C, that allowed four time F1 Champion Sebastian Vettel to get Germany on the board. In the return leg, NASCAR champion Kurt Busch beat Mick Schumacher. Germany got through after Vettel won his second race, before Pastrana knocked out team GB, (David Coulthard and Alister McRae).

It was the Finnish team (Valtteri Bottas and Heikki Kovalainen) that joined team GB in elimination from the competition in the group stage. Team Australia Off-Road, despite finishing third, would survive.

Quarter Finals

The Quarters saw the introduction of the two time defending champions, Team Norway, (Petter and Oliver Solberg). However, Team All Stars sent them packing in their quarter final tie. Kristofferson beat Petter Solberg, before Mostert sent the Australian crowd wild when he beat Oliver Solberg. A massive shock to begin the final eight had just taken place.

It looked like France made light work of New Zealand in their tie. Loeb got through with no trouble, however Martins hit the barrier on the way to his win, and race control gave him a five second penalty, which lost him the tie and a play-off between the countries ensued.

Meanwhile, Kostecki got the Aussies supercars team through, and Vettel’s perfect run continued for Germany, however Mick Schumacher would lose, and sent Germany to a play-off.

In the playoff, Loeb was faster then the emerging Sharp, while Vettel put Germany through.

Semi Finals

All-Star Chaz Mostert suffered defeat against Martins, while Kristofferson levelled the score against Loeb in the first semi-final.

In the other leg, Kostecki got Schumacher by half a car length and Vettel got the better of Will Brown.

Both semi-finals ended up in play-offs. Martins got the better of Kristofferson as his strong night continued.

In a shock result for Australia, Sebastian Vettel’s perfect run finally came undone, as Kostecki sent Australian Supercars into the final.

However, it wasn’t to be for the Aussies, as France beat the hometown heroes to win the Race of Champions Nations Cup.