Team Nordic aka Tom Kristensen and Juho Hänninen swept away all
competition until the final of the ROC Nations Cup 2011 when they
had to surrender to Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. The
two F1-champions secured their fifth consecutive ROC Nations Cup
title for Team Germany on home soil in Düsseldorf's ESPRIT
arena.
In the final Tom K was beaten by just a few metres by the
F1-legend Michael Schumacher, who probably was not unhappy to see
that their battle had to be fought in a KTM X-BOW, which the German
had driven for quite a few heats on his way to the final.
Afterwards, the rally champion Juho Hänninen could not prevent the
Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel from winning the second and
decisive heat. Again there was no help in terms of the choice of
car for Team Nordic in this battle. The ROC Nations Cup 2011 had to
be decided in the ROC Buggy, which Sebastian Vettel had driven very
well in many heats up to the final, whereas the Finnish driver had
not driven it at all before the final showdown.
Even though it was "close, but no cigar" for Team Nordic Tom
Kristensen could be more than satisfied with his performance.
The Dane made it to the final as the only driver among the many
motorsport legends to win all his races. Mr. Perfect, as the
commentators named the Le Mans record holder, showed his class
already in the group stages when Team Nordic faced Team France,
Team USA and SAT1 Team Germany 2.
In the very first heat of the evening the Audi driver went head on
with the GP2 champion Romain Grosjean in a VW Scirocco. After a
slow start Kristensen found his rhythm and speed and saw the
chequered flag before the Frenchman. Next the American Brian Deegan
was on the menu and once again the Dane came out on top. Kristensen
gave the spectators a final salute of the group stages when he
drove one of the fastest times of the evening to beat the F1 driver
Timo Glock in an Audi R8 LMS. When Juho Hänninen at the same time
crossed the finish line before the X-games legend Travis Pastrana
Team Nordic was ready for the semifinals against Team France.
Tom Kristensen continued his show in the knockout stage. Once
again Romain Grosjean was the opponent, but this time the duel was
in an Audi R8 LMS. The Dane won his fourth heat in a row. A short
time after Juho Hänninen secured the place in the ROC Nations Cup
2011 final by pressing the bumper of his car in front of Sebastian
Ogier's car in a very close battle.
Tom Kristensen has won the ROC Nations Cup one time before; back
in 2005 with the DTM star Mattias Ekström as Team Scandinavia. The
"Race of Champions" starts tomorrow at 14.00 (CET) and can be seen
live at www.raceofchampions.com.