Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque wins Race of Champions

Filipe Albuquerque couldn’t have asked for a better debut at the Race of Champions as he conquered the title at the ESPRIT arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, beating 15 superstars of motorsport.

In the best-of-three Grand Final Albuquerque, who competed in Italian GT racing for Audi this season, outlasted, by two legs to one, World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb on the specially-constructed parallel track clinching the title of Champion of Champions.

On its way to the final ROC South Europe winner Filipe Albuquerque beat Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel in a very tight semi-final and triumphed against his fellow Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente.

As for Loeb he reached the Grand Final beating eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in the quarter-finals and world touring car star Andy Priaulx in the powerful Audi R8 LMS, in the semi-finals.

At the end of the day Filipe Albuquerque showed his joy for his title of Champion of Champions: “Today was my day. Everything went so well and I made no mistakes. Since the beginning I was up against such good drivers - I had to beat Sebastian Vettel twice and in the final, wow, Sébastien was really on it. I just drove my race and when I won the first one I was really happy. In the second race I made a small mistake and straightaway he was there and won - a little mistake can cause you to lose everything in this competition. But in the deciding race I was nice and smooth with no mistakes. I can't believe it - it's the first time I am here and I have won - I could not ask for more. To win against great names, including Vettel in Germany when he has just won the world championship, is just fantastic.”