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May 23rd
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Team Germany secure fifth Nations Cup

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ROC Nations Cup Report. The Sebastian Vettel/Michael Schumacher pairing secured a fifth-successive victory in the ROC Nations Cup event on home ground in Dusseldorf, overcoming some early losses to secure victory over Team Nordic in the final.  

The victory was far from as dominant as the duo might have liked, with the pairing dropping two heats in the group stage and coming within a Jenson Button spin of possible elimination to Team GBR in the semi-final, but the result was the same as it has been for the last five years.

Fittingly, it was Vettel who secured the glory, comfortably beating rally driver Juho Hanninen in the second heat of the final to hand Germany an unassailable 2-0 lead and ensure that the trophy remained with them.

Schumacher set up the win by becoming the first driver to beat Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen throughout the whole event in the first final heat, but earlier the seven-time champion had come unstuck.

He lost out in a close-run opening heat in Germany's semi-final match up with Team GBR, as Jenson Button secured the win, before Vettel set up a deciding heat by beating Button's team mate Andy Priaulx.

The top two men from the 2011 Formula One championship were neck and neck at the midway point of the decider, but a critical spin by Button on his second lap of the Esprit Arena course gave Vettel a comfortable drive for the line to set up their final success.

The Nordic team came through their own semi final more comfortably, with Kristensen and Hanninen easily triumphing over the Team France pairing of GP2 champion Romain Grosjean and WRC star Sebastien Ogier.

Earlier on in the group stages, Kristensen remained undefeated as Nordic coasted into the semi finals, with a crucial 2-0 win over Team USA proving the key point in their efforts, while France also qualified with a whitewash of the Americans to knock out the secondary German pair of Timo Glock and DTM driver Timo Scheider.

In the second group, despite defeats for Schumacher at the hands of Team Slavic's Vitaly Petrov, and Priaulx surprisingly toppling Vettel in their match-up, Germany qualified comfortably along with group winners GBR.

That left the Slavic squad third, with Petrov and team mate Jan Kopecky triumphing in the wooden spoon battle over the All-Stars team of 2010 RoC champion Filip Alberquerque and David Coulthard.

Coulthard did rack up one heat win, against Petrov, and also provided the biggest laugh of the day with a scandalous jump-start in his heat against Schumacher.

But the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the end, and Vettel's trophy-clinching win, as Formula One's two dominators from the sport's recent history continue to apply that same level of domination to this competition.

 Group A   
 France 1 - 1 Nordic
 USA 1 - 1 Germany II
 Germany II 1 - 1 France
 Nordic 2 - 0 USA
 Germany II 1 - 1 Nordic
 USA 0 - 2 France
   Pld Wins
 1 Team France(Q) 6 4
 2 Team Nordic(Q) 6 4
 3 Team Germany II 6 3
 4 Team USA 6 1
 France and Nordic qualify for semi finals
 
 Group B  
 Germany I 1 - 1 Slavic       
 GBR 2 - 0 All-Stars
 All-Stars 0 - 2 Germany I
 Slavic 0 - 2 GBR
 All-Stars 1 - 1 Slavic
 Germany I 1 - 1 GBR
   Pld Wins
 1 Team GBR(Q) 6 5
 2 Team Germany I(Q) 6 4
 3 Team Slavic 6 2
 4 Team All-Stars 6 1
 Germany I and GBR qualify for semi finals
 
 Semi Finals  
 France 0 - 2 Nordic
 GBR 1 - 2 Germany I
 Final  
 Nordic 0 - 2 Germany I