http://www.raceofchampions.com/The Race Of Champions is a knockout tournament where the world’s greatest drivers battle to prove they’re the fastest on Earth.
Through a series of head-to-head races in identical cars on a parallel track, the stars fight it out to prove they have what it takes to be crowned ‘Champion of Champions’.
Cars are swapped round between heats to ensure all drivers have to prove themselves in a variety of machinery. But the format of the Race Of Champions was changed in 2009 to maximise entertainment value for fans, ensuring they saw more action than ever before from every driver.
As ever, drivers competed in head-to-head heats in identical cars, with each heat held over two full laps of the parallel track. But instead of a knockout system from the start, the event began with a group stage, where each driver faced each of the others in their group. Those with the most wins moved on to the quarter-finals.
From there it’s back to a head-to-head, no second chances, knockout competition to get to the semi-finals and then the Grand Final. Just as with all the world’s great cup competitions, the tension builds all the way through to this best-of-three shootout where there can be only one ‘Champion of Champions’.
Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque surprised a vintage field including the reigning F1 and world rally champions to win in 2010. In 2009, DTM star Mattias Ekström met F1 legend Michael Schumacher in the final, repeating their battle from 2007. The Swede came out on top to claim the mythical title for the third time. Other recent winners include Sébastien Loeb, Heikki Kovalainen and Marcus Grönholm. So who will take the title in 2011?
