Loeb wins third Race of Champions title
Sebastien Loeb won his third Race of Champions title by defeating retiring Formula One driver David Coulthard in this year's final at Wembley on Sunday.
Loeb went one up in the best of three contest with a comfortable victory in the first race in RoC buggies, but Coulthard got back on terms by edging the Frenchman out by just under a second in their X-Bow contest to take the event to a deciding race.
They were back into the RoC buggies for the finale and, although Coulthard ran him much closer this time, Loeb just squeezed home by 0.321s.
"It's a great pleasure to win this," said Loeb. "Last year I couldn't come, so it's good to be back this year. I had a difficult start because I went off in the first race, but it was ok and I could come back."
Coulthard said he was happy with the runner-up spot to close his retirement season.
"It's not too bad to be beaten by a five-time world rally champion," he said. "I'm just happy to have made the final with so many good drivers here."
The event's biggest upset came when NASCAR racer Carl Edwards defeated Nations Cup champion and former event winner Michael Schumacher in the second round. Edwards just edged out the seven time Formula One world champion over two laps in Abarths - having crashed in his only previous race in the car in the day's earlier Nations Cup contest.
That earned Edwards a tie against Coulthard in the semi-finals. Coulthard looked to be winning comfortably until the final corner of the last lap, where his X-Bow surged straight on and nosed into the wall. The Scot dug it out just in time to beat Edwards to the line by less than a second.
Loeb booked his own place in the final by seeing off Andy Priaulx in their semi. Loeb had already dispatched Nations Cup champion Sebastian Vettel in the second round, while Priaulx had looked like making a charge for the title himself after beating reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom in an extremely tight Ford Focus WRC contest in their second round.
Loeb had earlier made the best comeback of the night following a big shunt at the first corner in his first round tie against World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller. He chased down his countryman for the remainder of the race and amazingly came out of the final turn with a narrow lead.
In the other second round tie, Coulthard knocked out American Tanner Foust, who had earlier beaten Jenson Button in their first round contest. Tom Kristensen, Jaime Alguersuari, Gareth MacHale, Jason Plato, Adam Carroll and Troy Bayliss were also eliminated in the first round.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/7246TheStig
Great Topic Neil.....!
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