ROC: Vettel claims Nations Cup for Germany

Above: Sebastian Vettel, left, squares off against Kurt Busch.

Team Germany earned a record seventh win in the Race of Champions Nations Cup after Sebastian Vettel took a victory by himself at Miami's Marlins Park.

Vettel was left to represent Team Germany by himself due to Pascal Wehrlein's withdrawal from action following his accident on Saturday. The situation was similar to the ROC Nations Cup in Paris in 2006 when Travis Pastrana had to represent Team USA on his own. On that occasion Jimmie Johnson injured his wrist just three days before the event, then his replacement Scott Speed was injured in F1 testing at Spain's Jerez circuit the day before the race.

Vettel reached the final by defeating Team Colombia's pairing of Gabby Chaves and the individual Champion of Champions from yesterday, Juan Pablo Montoya, in two straight heats.

The other semifinal was a close contest. Kurt Busch and IndyCar's Alexander Rossi needed a third heat tiebreak after they won one heat apiece. Busch prevailed, sending Rossi and fellow Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay home.

In the end Vettel went through the entire day's action unbeaten, holding off Team USA's duo of Kyle and Kurt Busch in the final.

The afternoon's proceedings began with 10 teams divided up into three groups. Group A featured three teams from the USA plus Team ROC Factor Canada. Group B was an all-European affair with Team Great Britain, Team Germany and Team Nordic. Group C focused on South America with Team Brazil, Team Colombia and Team ROC Factor Latin America.

Group A began as ROC Factor Canada's James Hinchcliffe beat Kurt Busch by just two thousandths of a second. Team USA Rally X's Travis Pastrana couldn't repeat his heroic unbeaten group performance from Saturday, and he and Scott Speed were knocked out.

ROC Factor Canada's Stefan Rzadzinski won two of his three heats, defeating both Speed and reigning Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, but it wasn't enough to keep his team in the tournament as Team USA IndyCar and Team USA NASCAR went through with four wins each.

Vettel won the battle of the Formula 1 world champions in the first race in Group B, seeing off Team GB's Jenson Button. David Coulthard later took one win but it wasn't enough to save the British duo from elimination. The German kept up the wins to see off the challenge of Team Nordic's Petter Solberg and Tom Kristensen – despite the Dane's strong run to the individual Race Of Champions Grand Final on Saturday.

Group C also had a stunning start as Helio Castroneves beat Team Brazil's Tony Kanaan by just three thousandths of a second in the first heat. Helio's ROC Factor Latin America teammate Gabriel Glusman wasn't so lucky, going into the barriers as he battled Felipe Massa. All three teams ended up with two wins each, but it was Team Colombia who progressed to the semifinals based on fastest laps.

The ROC Nations Cup was followed by the first Ryder Cup-style "America versus the world," a head-to-head shootout with six USA drivers taking on all the other drivers in a race to collect eight points.

The scores were tied at 3-3 after the first round of races, with American wins for Kyle and Kurt Busch plus Alexander Rossi. The world responded with wins by Juan Pablo Montoya, Tom Kristensen and Felipe Massa.

There were double points on offer in the second round, when Scott Speed sent the home fans wild by defeating Helio Castroneves. The newly crowned ROC Nations Cup winner Sebastian Vettel responded by beating Travis Pastrana before Kyle Busch took America to a 7-5 lead by defeating Jenson Button.

The final boiled down to a single winner-takes-all heat between Global Rallycross Champion Scott Speed and World Rallycross Champion Petter Solberg in the RX Supercar Lite. Solberg prevailed to seal an 8-7 win for The World.