Team Germany makes it eight in a row at RoC

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Team Germany has successfully clinched the Race of Champions Nations Cup for the eighth time in a row.

That's despite the absence of Sebastian Vettel, who has been a crucial part of Team Germany's previous campaigns.

Last year, the four-time world champion won the event practically single handed after his compatriot Pascal Wehrlein was forced out with an injury.

Vettel decided not to take part in this year's tournament at Riyadh’s King Fahad International Stadium. However, Germany's national honour was maintained by RoC rookies Timo Bernhard and Rene Rast.

The pair saw off a formidable threat from Team Latin America's Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya in the final.

"It was a great team effort today," Bernhard said afterwards. "We know Team Germany have a big history here at the Race Of Champions.

“To be honest we didn’t have big expectations today," he admitted. "We just wanted to survive the first round. But now we’re very proud to be sitting here with that big trophy."

Vettel takes a pass on Race of Champions event

Rast said that it was a "dream come true" to win against stars of Formula 1 and world rally.

"The whole event is so much fun and I’ve really enjoyed being here, driving against these big stars."

Bernhard and Rast beat home favourites Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Ahmed Bin Khanen in the semi final. Castroneves and Montoya overcame Team Nordic (Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg) to book their place in the final.

Great Britain was among the teams failing to make it through from the first round heats. However, David Coulthard and Lando Norris did at least pick up a win apiece in their curtailed campaign.

Team USA had been another early casualty, with IndyCar stars Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden unable to progress.

But all the drivers will be back in action again on Saturday night. They will be competing in the individual Race of Champions. Last year's winner Montoya will be defending the title he won a year ago in Miami.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.