The race of champions!

Michael Schumacher will face Jenson Button during the group stages of this weekend's Race of Champions in Dusseldorf.

The draw for the initial stages of both the Race of Champions and the Nations' Cup were made on Thursday, with the two former Formula 1 world champions being drawn in Group C along with S-WRC champion Juho Hanninen and X-games legend Brian Deegan.

Double world champion Sebastian Vettel has been drawn in Group D alongside Renault F1 driver Vitaly Petrov, GP2 champion Romain Grosjean and the Le Mans 24 Hours' most successful driver Tom Kristensen.

Each driver will take part in a two-lap race against each of his group rivals, with points awarded for victories and the top two scorers progressing to the knock-out stages.

The Nations' Cup, which has been won by the German line-up of Schumacher and Vettel for the past four years, which will feature the same format.

The home country has been drawn in Group B against Team Slavic (Petrov/Jan Kopecky), Team Great Britain (Button/Andy Priaulx) and Team All-Stars (David Coultrhard/Filipe Albuquerque).
Race of Champions draw
Group A
Filipe Albuquerque
Andy Priaulx
David Coulthard
Travis Pastrana

Group B
Mattias Ekstrom
Martin Tomczyk
Jan Kopecky
Sebastien Ogier

Group C
Michael Schumacher
Jenson Button
Brian Deegan
Juho Hanninen

Group D
Sebastian Vettel
Tom Kristensen
Vitaly Petrov
Romain Grosjean

Nations' Cup draw

Group A
Team France (Sebastien Ogier/Romain Grosjean)
Team Nordic (Tom Kristensen/Juho Hanninen)
Team USA (Travis Pastrana/Brian Deegan)
SAT1 Team Germany 2 (Timo Glock/Timo Scheider)

Group B
Team Germany (Michael Schumacher/Sebastian Vettel)
Team Slavic (Vitaly Petrov/Jan Kopecky)
Team Great Britain (Jenson Button/Andy Priaulx)
Team All-Stars (David Coulthard/Filipe Albuquerque)

it's going to be awesome usually live on eurosport

Race of Champions - whats Coulthard doing in there! haha...

Prob others in there too that havent won championships.

it's on Motors TV (Sky 413) from 6pm on Satuday and from 1pm on Sunday.

so moved from eurosport which is a surprise

COol will try watching it.

What car will they be driving then? i take it, its all the same car?

http://www.raceofchampions.com/pages/common/RaceofChampions.aspx?pg=7438

all these

Nice link... will take a gander. Plenty of car pron on there :-)

Critical_mass wrote:Race of Champions - whats Coulthard doing in there! haha...

Im sure most of the drivers in there would rather have 13 grand prix victories than a championship in some tinpot series.

Plus he almost won it a couple of years back.

relax, i was joking

.. sort of

Haha, i didn't mean to come across so serious.

It's a fun competition to watch, looking forward to it..

monty junior wrote:Haha, i didn't mean to come across so serious.

It's a fun competition to watch, looking forward to it..

It's on now

Superb drives from Ogier to win it! Brits got smoked in the quarters, shame tyre management couldnt be integrated into the ROC because then Button may of possibly won. Also nice to see Schumacher destroy Vettel.......I heard this Seb kid was untouchable

Saw an interview with Norberg Haug and he confirmed that next season the team will be officially named Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team with it's debut coming at the second pre-season testing event in 2012. I've got a sneaky suspicion that Brawn's masterful team of Bell, Willis and Costa have created something special for 2012 in an attempt to challenge Red Bull. Delaying pre-season in my opinion is a sign of confidence and an effort to stop rival teams from copying certain elements before the start of the season and is a ploy used by Adrian Newey at Red Bull in previous seasons.

John wrote:
Saw an interview with Norberg Haug and he confirmed that next season the team will be officially named Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team with it's debut coming at the second pre-season testing event in 2012. I've got a sneaky suspicion that Brawn's masterful team of Bell, Willis and Costa have created something special for 2012 in an attempt to challenge Red Bull. Delaying pre-season in my opinion is a sign of confidence and an effort to stop rival teams from copying certain elements before the start of the season and is a ploy used by Adrian Newey at Red Bull in previous seasons.

Thats what some people were saying about McLaren this/last season. Also, they may just be unveiling themselves with the new sponsors / livery etc. at the second pre-season test. Doesn't meant they won't be at the first test session...unless you've heard otherwise.