Sebastian Vettel in the Race of Champions, November 2015

Race of Champions 2015

Mark

Last weekend saw the Race of Champions 2015 in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.  The Race of Champions started in 1988, and moves from location to location, with this being the first trip to the UK since 2008 when Wembley hosted the event.  It’s fair to say that the weather conditions were a bit different this year to the 2014 event in Barbados, with Friday night’s Nations Cup being chilly enough to see some of the spectators covered in blankets to stay warm.  Nevertheless, there was plenty of excitement as the cars came in to the arena, for the first event, the Celebrity Skills Challenge.  A series of stars, many from the sporting world, took turns showing their skills.  Participants included Sir Ben Ainslie, Denise Lewis and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who I had last seen in the same stadium during the London 2012 Olympics.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Team GB in the long jump during the heptathlon at the London 2012 Olympics

 

 

 

The celebrities were welcomed into the arena by the cheerleaders who entertained the crowd between races.

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The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

Next up was the Nations Cup, with the various participants split by nation, or at least by geography.  The teams were as follows:

 

Team Germany, Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Vettel

 

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

 

 

 

Team Nordic, Petter Solberg and Tom Kristensen

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015
The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Australia, Mick Doohan and Daniel Ricciardo

 

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

 

 

Team Brazil, Nelson Piquet Jr and Felipe Massa
The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

Team Scotland, David Coulthard and Susie Wolff
The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

 

 

Team Americas, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jose Maria Lopez
The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

 

 

Team All Stars, Romain Grosjean and Chris Hoy (standing in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo)

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

Team England 1, Jason Plato and Andy Priaulx

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

 

Team England 2, Jenson Button and Alex Buncombe

 

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

Team Young Stars, Joylon Palmer and Pascal Wehrlein

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

The competition was made up of a series heats, with each of the two drivers from each team taking turns to race an opponent.  In the event of a one all draw, the two winning drivers had a third round to decide which team would go through.

 

A preliminary round saw the All Stars take on the Young Stars, and England 1 take on Brazil to join the other teams in the quarter final.  The heats saw plenty of exciting rounds, with the race between David Coulthard and Jenson Button being about as close as it gets, and Sebastian Vettel taking on former team mate Daniel Ricciardo.  The evening culminated with a final between England 1 and Germany, with England 1 taking the title.

 

The event also saw demonstrations with Pascal Wehrlein taking the 2013 Mercedes F1 car around the stadium, and the excellent stunt driver Terry Grant entertain the crowd.

The Race of Champions, Olympic Stadium, London, November 2015

 

Saturday saw the Race of Champions, the individual championship for the drivers. Sebastian Vettel had never won the individual title despite winning the Nations Cup six times in a row with Michael Schumacher, but that was to change over the weekend when he took the title of Champion of Champions.

 

Meanwhile, here are some photos from the weekend…