Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace of Champions

Vettel and Hulkenberg beaten in Nations Cup final

©ROC

Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg have been beaten in the final of the Race of Champions Nations Cup in London.

Team Germany was beaten by Team England 1 - made up of touring car drivers Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato. Team England 1 took the first leg against Vettel before Hulkenberg beat Plato to force a deciding race. Priaulx was again victorious to give Team England its first Nations Cup victory, depriving Hulkenberg of a debut win. It also marked the first time Vettel had failed to win in the Nations Cup after six previous successes.

The all-F1 German team had made the final with victories over Team Australia and Team Nordic, with the opening round seeing Vettel beat former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in a close race.

For Team England, a win in the quarter finals against Team Americas was followed up by a final race decider against Team England 2 - made up of Jenson Button and Alex Buncombe. With Button and Priaulx winning their respective legs it was Priaulx who then took the deciding race against the 2009 world champion.

Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean both had disappointing nights as both Team Brazil and Grosjean's Team All Stars - alongside cycling legend Chris Hoy - failed to make it beyond the first round.

The drivers will return to race for the individual title on Saturday, which is currently held by former McLaren and Red Bull driver David Coulthard. Coulthard - who will look to defend his Champion of Champions crown - was beaten by Button in a first round Nations Cup race on Friday by just 0.005s.

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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.