Loeb beats Coulthard to RoC title.

Sebastien Loeb shrugged off the disappointment of being beaten in the first round of the Nations Cup by winning the overall Race of Champions title at Wembley.

A third RoC title for the five-time World Rally Champion, Loeb had been on the receiving end of an upset when representing France in the Nations Cup after being beaten by Mattias Ekstrom in WRC machinery.

However, he responded in the best way possible in the individual event as he ploughed his way into the final, where he would meet now retired F1 driver Coulthard, who had enjoyed an inspired run on the way to his head-to-head with Loeb.

In the final, Loeb scored a comfortable victory in the first of the 'best of three' heats driving the RoC Buggy, only for Coulthard to level it with the KTM X-Bow, a car that had otherwise been causing problems for him throughout the day.

However, a return to the RoC Buggy saw Loeb prevail comfortably, the Frenchman succeeding Mattias Ekstrom as the RoC Champion.

Loeb had earlier staged a superb fight back against team-mate Yvan Muller in the first round of the heats after getting out of shape at the first corner. However, he overhauled the WTCC Champion by the final corner to book his place into the next round.

He went on to beat Sebastian Vettel in the quarter-final before going on to dispatch Andy Priaulx in the semi-final.

Coulthard's path saw him triumph against Irish rally driver Gareth McHale before taking on and beating USA pair Tanner Foust and Carl Edwards in the quarter and semi-finals respectively. Coulthard did almost throw it away though when he clattered the barriers on the final corner before collecting it in time to deny Edwards a shock final berth.

Indeed, Edwards had already supplied the biggest upset of the event when he beat title favourite and seven-time Formula 1 Champion Michael Schumacher in a closely fought tussle with the Abarths. Furthermore, there were some other notable performances, with Priaulx beating reigning champion Ekstrom in the Focus WRC car the Swede had earlier used to beat Loeb in the Nations Cup.

Elsewhere, Foust knocked out Jenson Button in the first round, while Tom Kristensen (beaten by Schumacher), Jaime Alguersuari (beaten by Edwards), Jason Plato (beaten by Priaulx), Adam Carroll (beaten by Ekstrom) and Troy Bayliss (beaten by Vettel) were also round one casualties.