David Coulthard wins Race of Champions, Nordic take Nations Cup

Experience triumphed over youth yesterday as David Coulthard beat Pascal Wehrlein in the final of the Race of Champions at Bushy park Circuit in Barbados.

Coulthard narrowly beat both World Rallycross champion Petter Solberg and six-time V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup en route to the final. Whincup knocked out Kurt Busch to earn his place in the semi final alongside Coulthard.

Meanwhile, Wehrlein defeated the impressive Robby Gordon in the quarter finals before easily disposing of fellow youngster Esteban Ocon in their semi final match up. Ocon had previously defeated Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay in the quarter final stage.

WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez, GP2 victor Jolyon Palmer, nine-times 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, Williams F1 tester Susie Wolff, Moto GP legend Mick Doohan, Jamaican racer Doug Gore, local Rhett Watson and defending champion Romain Grosjean were all eliminated in the group stages.

In the final, the first of a possible three races saw the pair line up in the ROC car. Coulthard won by 2.7 seconds leaving Wehrlein needing to win the second race to be in with a chance of winning the event.

The day before saw drivers team up for the Nations Cup event. Team Nordic, consisting of Kristensen and Solberg defeated team UK (Coulthard and Wolff) on a tie breaker after both Coulthard and Kristensen won their final races.

Nordic and France beat both Team Young Stars (Wehlein and Palmer) and Team Americas (Gordon and Lopez) to progress front he earlier group stage. Team UK and Barbados advanced after knocking out Team USA (Hunter-Reay and Busch) and Australia (Whincup and Doohan).

Coulthard and Kristensen went head to head in the tie-breaker with both behind the wheel of the Ariel Atom Cup car. In the end it was Kristensen who prevailed after Coulthard ran wide at the final corner.