ROC Race Of Champions - Kristensen the bridesmaid once more as Grosjean wins the ROC

Romain Grosjean has won the 2012 Race Of Champions, defeating Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen 2-0 in the final at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.

Grosjean has another reason to smile

The Frenchman made up for yesterday's disapointment in the Nations Cup by defeating both Sebastien Vettel and Michael Schumacher en route to the final. The evening wasn't smooth though with Schumacher beating him in their first group D race. Schumacher ended up topping the group ahead of Grosjean, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Japan's ROC Asia qualifier Kazuya Ohshima.

Group A saw champion Ogier dominate, winning all of his races, David Coulthard took two wins to progress. V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup beat Production World Rally Champion Benito Guerra but both finished behind Ogier and Colthard in the group table.

Priaulx crashed out in spectacular fashion

China's Ho-Pin Tung was the surprise of the night, topping Group B, finishing ahead of Tom Kristensen, Nattavude Charoensukawattana and Andy Priaulx. The Channel Islander made a shock exit from the competition, despite beating Tung, by losing to Charoensukawattana before crashing out against Kristensen thanks to break issues with the Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo car he was racing. the crash marked the end to a difficult week for the Italian supercar with several issues being reported and motorcycle racing legend Mick Doohan suffering a similar accident during the nation's cup on Saturday.

Formula One World Champion and Moto GP Champion Sebastien Vettel and Jorge Lorenzo were drawn together in Group C. However, it was the 4 wheel champion who progressed with another 2 wheeled champion in the form of legend Mick Doohan joining Vettel in the quarter finals. Thailand's Tin Sritrai beat both Lorenzo and Doohan but missed out on the quarter finals due to a time penalty.

Ho-Pin Tung was impressive

Vettel was to lose out to Grosjean in the quarter finals as the German stuck a wall, damaging the suspension on his KTM X-Bow, whilst in a replay of the 2011 final, Kristensen was pitted against Sebastien Ogier. This time however, it was Kristensen, not Ogier who ended up on top. Ho-Pin Tung couldn't keep up his strong group stage performance, losing out to David Coulthard, whilst in the other quarter final, Michael Schumacher defeated Mick Doohan.


In the Semi Finals, Tom Kristensen defeated David Coulthard whist Romain Grosjean brushed aside Michael Schumacher.

youth and experience faced off in the final

The final, a best of 3, saw Grosjean and Kristensen go head to head, firstly in the ROC Buggy, then in the KTM X-Bow. Grosjean comfortably won the first race, whereas in the second race, he fought back after a strong start by Kristensen to make it two out of two.  

Grosjean's win makes him the fourth French ROC winner after Didier Auriol, Sebastien Loeb and 2011 winner Sebastien Ogier and the third first time winner in as many years whilst Tom Kristensen lost out in the final for the second consecutive year.