Thrills and spills for F1 stars at the 2017 Race of Champions competition

A number of past and present Formula 1 drivers took part in the 2017 Race of Champions event that took place in Miami last weekend.

Former Williams and McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya won the individual contest by beating nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen in the final of the knockout competition.

The event, which this year took place in Miami’s Marlins Park stadium, also featured Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Williams’ Felipe Massa, Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein and McLaren’s Jenson Button, as well as 13-time F1 winner David Coulthard and a number of stars from NASCAR, IndyCar, RallyCross and touring car series.

Montoya beat Kristensen in the best-of-three individual Grand Final to claim the RoC title on his first appearance at the event, which pits drivers against each other in a range of vehicles in a stadium setting.

Speaking after his win, Montoya said: “Today I’m regretting not having done this before. It has been an amazing experience. It’s not our job, it’s a fun event.

“But when you go to the grid you want to warm the tyres and the brakes. You think about how to drop the clutch, what to do in the first corner. It’s unbelievable how focused you are. It’s like qualifying. I don’t know what gave me the edge. I don’t have pride, I just kept asking people what they were doing. That way I kept adding things to the database of what I needed to do.

“I spoke to David Coulthard just before the final to ask whether I had to change gears in the cars because I had no idea. It went well, must be beginner’s luck!”

Wehrlein and Vettel had been scheduled to team up for the RoC Nations Cup, which took place a today after the individual contest, but the Sauber driver was forced to withdraw as a precaution on medical advice after crashing heavily during a heat on the first day.

The 22-year-old dramatically rolled his car seconds after the finish of a race against Massa and although he walked away from the incident, Wehrlein later announced he would not take part in the second day of racing after feeling some “mild discomfort”, which meant he could not risk coming to further harm ahead of the upcoming F1 season.

“I’m very sorry to withdraw from today’s RoC Nations Cup,” he said in a statement. “I’d really like to race again and I feel fine, but the doctors have advised me to rest so of course I will take their advice. It’s no more than mild discomfort but my real priority for the coming year is my Formula 1 season.

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“So while I’m sad to be missing out on all the action, I send my best wishes to my team-mate Sebastian Vettel and the rest of the competitors here in Miami and I wish them another exciting day’s racing.”

Despite losing his teammate, Vettel went on to score a record seventh Nations Cup for Team Germany after he won all four of his heat races, a semi-final against Team Colombia’s Montoya and IndyCar racer Gabby Chaves, and then defeated Team USA NASCAR – represented by Kyle and Kurt Busch – in the final.

Speaking after he sealed the teams’ prize single-handedly, Vettel, who had been knocked out in the preliminary group stages of the individual contest, explained that as a result of that disappointment he was determined make sure he came away from the event with something to show for his efforts.

He said: “The Race Of Champions is a great competition, but yesterday I went out very early. So I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave the States empty-handed. I started on the wrong foot but it helped me to take it a bit more seriously.

“Today I just wanted to get some more time on the track. I found the rhythm straightaway and it felt pretty good. Unlike yesterday, I got along with all the cars today.

“But that’s the way it goes: sometimes you wake up and it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It obviously worked out well but of course it would have been nicer to share this victory with Pascal.”