Ekstrom defeats Schumacher for fourth Race of Champions victory

The Swede, who twice prevailed against Schumacher’s seven-time world championship-winning father Michael in the 2007 and 2009 finals, didn’t hide the feelings stirred up by facing the ex-Haas F1 racer on the same stage so many years later. Beating him two-nil in the final only added to the Audi Dakar ace's delight.

That put Ekstrom into a semi-final battle with Hyundai World Rally Championship driver Thierry Neuville. The heats between these two also went down to the wire, but the 2016 World RX champion continued his habit of winning close affairs – helped along by his Belgian adversary knocking the steering out of line in the second clash.

Schumacher gained the upper hand in the first heat, where Vettel smashed a snow bank and ended up with his Supercar Lite on the wrong side of the track. That lost him the race and gave Schumacher a psychological advantage going into the second encounter, which the younger German duly won. Earlier, hot favourite Oliver Solberg was eliminated in his quarter-final against Neuville. Jumping into the ultra-powerful FC1-X Nitro rallycross machine for the first time, yesterday's Nations Cup winner pushed a little too hard and collected an advertising banner approaching the bridge, so went into the second heat with the maximum ten-second deficit.

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