In the round-up: Mick Schumacher emulates his father in Race of Champions and IndyCar stars win the Daytona 24 Hours sports car race.
In brief
Ekstrom defeats Schumacher to be crowned champion of champions
The Race of Champions concluded on the snow and ice of Pite Havsbad in Sweden on Sunday with a showdown between two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom and Mercedes’ new Formula 1 reserve driver Mick Schumacher.
The grand final ran to two heats, with Ekstrom winning both. It was the fourth time Ekstrom has become ROC Champion of Champions, with two of his previous successes having been won in finals against Schumacher’s father Michael.
“We had many battles and I have only great memories with Michael from this event,” said Ekstrom. “I’m super proud because Mick also rode with me on Friday in the Dakar car and we had a nice time. Michael was always humble with me and I can see Mick is also very humble. Mick is such a huge talent and his time is ahead of him, so I look forward to more battles in the future.”
Schumacher knocked out four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel in the semi-finals, and bettered Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich in the quarter-finals based on fastest time countback. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and W Series Jamie Chadwick fell earlier in the competition.
IndyCar stars begin year on a high in Daytona 24 hours
Meyer Shank Racing’s IndyCar driver Helio Catroneves and Simon Pagenaud started their year in style by winning for the team in the Daytona 24 Hours sports car race.
In a GTP class Acura ARX-06 co-entered by Curb-Agajanian and also driven by former Formula E racer Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, the pair won the race by just 4.19 seconds.
A further 5.44s behind were their IndyCar rivals Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon, with the two champions sharing a Cadillac hypercar.
Colton Herta switched allegiance from Andretti Autosport to race Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s BMW hypercar and finished 15 laps back in sixth, while several of his IndyCar team mates drove in the lower classes.
Team Penske’s “bus bros” Scott McLaughin and Josef Newgarden finished fifth in LMP2, ahead of Andretti’s Devlin DeFrancesco and Haas F1 reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi who were sharing a car.
Romain Grosjean marked his debut as a factory Lamborghini driver with fourth in the GTDPro class, and new Andretti team mate Kyle Kirkwood was fifth in the non-pro class.
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