Team Germany earns third Nations' Cup trophy

China was the host nation for the 2009 Race of Champions and it is indeed a change of pace from past events. Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium set the scene today with the teams competing for the Nations' Cup trophy. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the individual racers will compete for the Champion of Champions bragging rights.

Podium: Nations Cup winners Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel for Team Germany, second place Andy Priaulx and Jenson Button for Team Autosport GB. Photo by xpb.cc.

However some notable names are missing, due to other commitments, including the three-time Champion of Champions Sebastien Loeb: The Frenchman recently took his sixth-consecutive World Rally Championship title. However the Chinese fans do get to see Michael Schumacher, the seven time Formula One champion and the newly crowned World Champion Jenson Button.

"We had a nice fight -- I just come back to this event to use whatever there is left of a talent," said Schumacher. "With this track, it's just a case of watching where the other guy is to know how hard to push. Of course, the racing is the highlight but the other stuff that goes on around that is part of the relaxed atmosphere of the Race of Champions that we all enjoy."

Even with the change, it did not affect Team Germany. The teaming of Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel paid off for the third year in a row, handing the team a record-setting third-consecutive Nations' Cup.

"It's great to win the Nations Cup for the third time in a row. It's all about team work in this event and I'd like to say thanks to the fans," smiled Vettel.

This year, the teams were split into three groups: one of four pairs and two made up of three pairs. They had to fight it out to make the semi-final before going on to which teams would make the final round.

Schumacher and this year's F1 sub-champion Vettel were matched up against the team out of the British Isle, one from Finland -- former Nations' Cup winners, an Australian team, one team from France, one each from China, USA and Monaco. There was also a Scandinavian team and an All-Star team.

Besides Schumacher, Vettel and Button, the lineup was impressive: Button was joined on the British team by three-time World Touring champion Andy Priaulx.

With the lineup of the teams, it was not a major surprise to see the final pairing: Team Germany and Team Autosport GB. It was a tight fight between the four racers and ended up being decided in a tie-breaker.

	Group B, race 1: Jenson Button. Photo by xpb.cc.

The day started with the first pairing of teams in the first group of four. Team Germany wasted no time by taking six wins followed by Team China with three, The duo from Finland had two wins and the Aussies took just one victory. The next group with only three teams saw the Brits follow Germany's record with four wins, leaving the All Stars and Monaco teams with just one apiece. The final three grouping all shared the same number of wins: Team Scandinavia, Team USA and Team France.

The four that made it to the semi-finals had a best-of-three match to see who would make it to the finals. Based on performance -- wins or the best combined time -- from the opening round were the lucky four: Germany, Great Britain, China and USA.

The skies were clear during the night time challenge has they headed into the semi-final round. Team USA had to take on the defending winners from Germany. In the first of the three matches, Tanner Foust beat Schumacher, putting pressure on Vettel who was up against Travis Pastrana in of all the cars, the World Rally Ford. Still the youngest-ever F1 race winner did his job and took the win. Now the pressure was on Vettel in the ROC buggy but Foust was nearly one second slower, allowing Vettel to breeze to the victory.

The final contest was between the British duo and the two local favorites. Button quickly put Han Han out of the running in the buggy but Ho-Pin Tung (known as Dong He Bin in China) won the contest in the prototype over Andy Priaulx. Now Button had to face Tung in the showdown and again in a buggy, Button was by far fastest.

"To be out there celebrating being the first loser is never best, I don't like finishing second," Button said. "It was a lot of fun -- I spent most of the evening trying to hang on to my team-mate's coat tails."

Final, race 3: Michael Schumacher and Andy Priaulx. Photo by xpb.cc.

The stage was set for the final contest.

The first heat for the two teams saw two Formula One World Champions with Schumacher getting the job done by taking the win over Button in the ROC buggy. Unfortunately Priaulx got the best of Vettel in the Ford WRC which set up the tie-breaker between the two heat winners.

"It was a great pleasure to race against Michael, I've watched him race for years," Priaulx said. "Tomorrow's Race of Champions main event will be a tough night, as I won't have a team-mate to pull me through, but it's nice to have a little success tonight."

Schumacher did not let his team down, earning the Nations' Cup by taking the final victory over Priaulx. "We (he and Vettel) are a good team and we helped each other out in the earlier stages," said Schumacher.

USA's team had a four-time American Rally champion and an American Formula Drift two time champion competing this year. Rally driver, X-Game medalist and former Motocross/Supercross racer Pastrana was partnered with Foust, another X-Game medalist.

New this year, racing at their home event, was the Chinese duo Pro rally driver Han, who also is a novelist. Tung has the racing background, staring in karting before taking the step up to single-seaters. The Formula BMW Asian 2003 champion continues to climb the ladder and made the move to the GP2 Series while also racing for the A1GP Chinese team.

Mikko Hirvonen, who came very close to besting Loeb this year in the WRC title fight joined the 2002 Champion of Champions winner plus twice a WRC champion, Marcus Gronholm for Team Finland. Gronholm was on his homeland Nations' Cup team in 2006.

	Drivers presentation: Mikko Hirvonen and Marcus Gronholm. Photo by xpb.cc.

The 2005 Nations' Cup Team Scandinavia came back again with the twice Champion of Champions' Mattias Ekstrom; he also has two DTM titles. Tom Kristensen has had multiple wins in sportscar racing and just retired from the DTM series but will continue to campaign for Audi in Le Mans racing where the Dane holds a record of eight 24 Hours of Le Mans victories.

Also taking two wins in the first round besides the Finns and the Scandinavians, were the duo from France. They also had an outstanding lineup with the defending World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller, who current sits two points out of taking a back-to-back title this year. He is joined by the Cross Country Rally World Cup title winner, Guerlain Chicherit -- the Frenchman has the shoes of Loeb to fill in the Race of Champions which will take place on Wednesday.

Those with one opening round win were the teams from Australia, Monaco and the All Stars.

Two Aussie motorcycle champions gave it their best shot racing four-wheel machines. Chad Reed is a multi Motocross and Supercross title holder and Mick Doohan has notched five 500cc world titles.

For Team Monaco, it was the five-time 24 Hours of Le Mans and an American Le Mans champion, Emanuele Pirro. The Italian who resides in Monaco was joined in the team competition by Clivio Piccione. An open-wheel ace was the Monegasque races for his homeland team in the A1GP series.

David Coultard, an ex Formula One driver who apparently might make a come back into the worlds' top single-seater series -- the same as Schumacher who has considered a return to F1 -- was paired with Giniel de Villiers, the 2009 Dakar (rally) winner from South Africa.