Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel win Race of Champions Nations' Cup for Germany again

Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher notched up yet another triumph for Team Germany in the Nations' Cup section of the Race of Champions in Dusseldorf tonight.

The annual RoC sees top stars from across motorsport pitched against each other in head to head knock-out races around an arena, using a wide variety of machines.

Vettel and Schumacher have now won the nation versus nation element for five consecutive years.

Their evening had started with an upset when Schumacher was beaten by Renault's Vitaly Petrov - driving under Team Slavic colours in the RoC - by just 0.05s in the seven-time champion's first race.

But Schumacher then easily defeated retired F1 driver David Coulthard, representing Team All-Stars, when the Scot jumped the start in their heat, and narrowly beat Team Great Britain's Jenson Button in NASCAR-style stock cars.

With Vettel winning all three of his heats, they made it through to the semi finals. British pair Button and Andy Priaulx - a multiple touring car champion - came up against them there, with Button getting revenge on Schumacher when they met in stock cars again.

Vettel then saw off Priaulx in KTM sportscars, setting up a decider against Button in the same machinery, which the current F1 champion won when his predecessor had a spin.

That set up a grand final showdown between Vettel and Schumacher's Team Germany and the Team Nordic pairing of rally ace Juho Hanninen and Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen, and the German duo came out clearly on top in two run-offs without needing a decider.

Despite Petrov starting well with a win over Schumacher, his Team Slavic pairing with rally driver Jan Kopecky didn't get beyond the heats.

Neither did Germany's B team, in which Virgin F1 racer Timo Glock was paired with former DTM champion Timo Scheider - despite Glock winning two of his three heats.

Renault test driver Romain Grosjean made a good start to the night as he and Team France partner Sebastien Ogier - another rally star - got through to the semi finals, but they were knocked out there by Team Nordic.