The Race of Champions started today in Australia. After an incredible duel, Victor Martins carried the French team to the top step of the podium.
It’s in the Accor Stadium in Sydney that the first day of the 2025 Race of Champions (ROC) began. The first day always starts with the Nation Cup, meaning a pairing of two drivers competing against two others to define who’s the better nation. With six different cars, ten teams faced each other, and France, with Victor Martins and Sébastien Loeb, managed to take the win.
A good-natured competition
Three groups of three teams competed to go to the quarter-finals. Only team Norway, who won in 2023, already had their place assured. Group A, composed of Finland, All Stars, and France, saw France winning their four duels and finishing first in their group. Finland, with Valtteri Bottas and Heikki Kovalainen, didn’t win a single one.
Group B had both of the Australian teams with the Australia Supercars and the Australia Off-road. New Zealand was the third one. A very close finish of only 0.024 happened between Louis Sharp and Toby Price. In the end, Price won and managed to take his team into the quarters.
Group C included Team Germany, Team USA, and Team Great Britain. Before the beginning of the ROC, Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel announced that winning the Nation Cup was the target. They attacked very strongly even in the heats. Vettel touched a wall and Schumacher took the inside line a bit too much and hit the gravel. They managed to qualify for the quarters, with Team USA.
Penalties and surprises
The biggest surprise of these quarters was team Norway. Petter and Oliver Solberg, who managed to win in 2023, lost all their duels against the All Stars team of Johan Kristoffersson and Chaz Mostert. A bit of confusion happened for France against New Zealand. Victor Martins touched the wall and placed it on Louis Sharp’s trajectory. Louis Sharp also touched the chicane, which could mean a penalty. Even though Martins won with a 3-second lead, he took a penalty, so they gave the win to New Zealand. The Formula 2 French driver explained what went wrong: “I was too committed. I changed from the Subaru to the rallycross car, so I had a bit too much speed”.
Ultimately, this mistake didn’t change a thing for France, who managed to win the third duel of this “best of three” format, with Sébastien Loeb winning against the young future Formula 3 driver Louis Sharp. Australia Supercars won against Team USA, and Team Germany won against Australia Off-road.
A close fight
Moving into the semi-final, it was very close between all the remaining teams. France won the first duel, but All Stars won the second one. Ultimately, Victor Martins won against Johan Kristofferson, thanks to small mistakes by the Swedish driver that cost him time. Australia Supercars won the first duel, but Team Germany won the second. A really close fight between Sebastian Vettel and Brodie Kostecki, who touched the wall two times, saw the Australian team advance to the final.
For the final, the chicane on top of the tunnel was removed, which meant a jump was going to happen on the shortest side of the track. Sébastien Loeb had a great start to his duel, and Will Brown was too quick under the tunnel, which made him lose time. With low grip from the four-time ROC winner, Will Brown managed to come back and win. The second duel between Victor Martins and Brodie Kostecki was close, but the 23-year-old kept the lead and won. This meant that the last duel would be him against Will Brown. On paper, he was clearly not the favorite, but against the odds, and with a small mistake from the New Zealander, he took the trophy home and made France a three-time Nation Cup winner, 21 years after the last time.
