Race of Champions 2009-06-10

Schumacher And Vettel To Defend ROC Nations Cup In Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium

- Seven-times F1 World Champion and Red Bull Racing GP winner enter The Race of Champions for third successive year

- Undefeated ROC Nations Cup team to defend their title at the Bird's Nest stadium, made famous by the 2008 Olympic Games.

Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel will head to Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium in November to compete in The Race of Champions, the end of season motorsport event that pitches the best racers from all disciplines of motorsport against each other in identical machinery.

Immediately after the final grand prix of the year, the seven-times F1 World Champion and Red Bull racing GP winner will both fly to Beijing, where they will work as a team in the ROC Nations Cup on Tuesday 3 November before fighting for individual glory in The Race of Champions on Wednesday 4 November.

They will race on a specially-constructed parallel tarmac circuit built inside the stadium that was made famous by the 2008 Summer Olympics.

"The Race of Champions is always big fun to compete in," says Schumacher. "It's the perfect combination of fighting on track and at the same time having fun together, and this comes across to the audience. The spectators feel this special atmosphere and ultimately enjoy themselves as much as we do.

"I'm really looking forward to joining in again this year, and am curious to see how the Chinese spectators will react to our crazy show on the track in the famous and beautiful Olympic Stadium. I'm sure they will love an event that has been entertaining European motorsport crowds for over 20 years.

"What's also important to me is that ROC helps raise money and awareness for ICM, the Institute for advanced research on Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders, which is under construction in Paris and that I have been a supporter of for several years."

The duo will enter the ROC Nations Cup as favourites, having won the event for the past two years at Wembley Stadium. In The Race of Champions, Schumacher has twice reached the finals (in 2004 and 2007), while Vettel is hopeful of improving on his form from last year.

"I'm really looking forward to this year's Race of Champions in Beijing," said Vettel, who won this year's Chinese GP in Shanghai. "The event is always a lot of fun and to compete in the Bird's Nest is going to be amazing. I think everyone still has the image of this fantastic stadium in their memories from the Olympic Games last year."

"I look forward to trying to take our third title for Germany in The ROC Nations Cup together with Michael and personally I'm also aiming to win the individual Race of Champions after the disappointment last year when I was knocked out in the quarter-finals."

Schumacher continues: "Sebastian and I are geared up to defend our title again. And of course I will push also in the driver's category and will try to win there too."

The two German drivers will join Team Monaco's Clivio Piccione and Emmanuele Pirro who won their places in the event by winning The Race of Champions' first regional final, Euromilhões ROC South Europe in Portugal, on June 6-7.

-credit: roc