French superstar Sebastien Loeb wins 2025 Race Of Champions at Sydney’s Accor Stadium
- aurelie196
- Mar 8
- 6 min read
9-time Rally World Champion Sebastien Loeb won a record fifth ‘Champion of Champions’ title at Sydney’s Accor Stadium tonight.
In the Final Loeb defeated Australian Supercars ROC “rookie” Chaz Mostert who was called into the event as a late replacement for Swedish driver Mattias Ekström.
The victory capped off a great weekend for Loeb who also became the first driver ever to win the ROC Nations Cup and the ROC Champion of Champions titles at the same event.
Team France (Loeb and Victor Martins) won the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night after defeating Team Australia Supercars (Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki) in the Final.
Accor Stadium was turned into a spectacular side-by-side 1km asphalt race track for the event.
9-time Rally World Champion Sebastien Loeb again proved why he is regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time by winning a record fifth Race Of Champions title at Sydney’s Accor Stadium tonight.
Loeb upset the parochial home Australian crowd by defeating Supercars star Chaz Mostert in the final.
Loeb took the early advantage in the final when he beat Mostert to the line by just 0.27 of a second in the opening heat in a Polaris RZR and then wrapped up the “best of three” contest with a 0.16-second winning margin in the FC2 Rallycross cars.
Loeb, 51, was provided a first-round bye as the highest-seeded Off-Road driver in the field and won his way through to the final with two wins against Australian Molly Taylor in the quarter finals and then two victories against young rally ace Oliver Solberg in the semi-final.
Tonight’s victory capped off another fantastic ROC event for Loeb who clinched last night’s ROC Nation’s Cup with young French open-wheel ace Victor Martins.
In doing so, he became the first driver to “do the double” in the 33-year history of the event.
Loeb was previously crowned ROC Champion of Champions in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2022.
He won nine consecutive World Rally Championships from 2004 to 2012 in one of the most dominant performances ever seen in world motorsport.
His WRC career included a record 80 event wins, 120 podium finishes and 939 stage victories.
More recently he has finished second at Dakar three times (2017, 2022 and 2023) and third in 2024.
Mostert, a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner and class winner at the Spa 24-hour and Daytona 24-hour, was a late replacement in the ROC event for Swedish driver Mattias Ekström who had to withdraw on medical grounds.
He joined Johan Kristoffersson in a special Team All Stars squad for last night’s ROC Nations Cup before tonight’s individual Champion of Champions battle.
Mostert showed his versatility to overcome F1 star Valtteri Bottas and NASCAR Champion Kurt Busch in the opening group races.
He then went head-to-head with four-time German Formula 1 World champion Sebastian Vettel and beat him by 0.37 of a second in a Subaru BRZ tS before clinching a semi-final spot with a win in a Supercar Lite Rallycross car.
That win put him in the semi-final against reigning Supercars champion Will Brown, guaranteeing that an Australian would be in the final.
Brown had won his way into the semi-final after two quarter final race wins against former world F2 champion and F1 driver, Mick Schumacher.
Mostert beat Brown by 0.14 of a second in a Polaris RZR in heat one and 0.24 of a second in the FC2 Rallycross car in heat two.
Tonight all 20 drivers battled it out Head-to-Head in two identical cars in each heat. The range of cars included the FC2 Rallycross, Supercar Lite Rallycross, KTM X-Bow Comp R, Polaris RZR Pro R, Subaru BRZ tS and Toyota GR86 Cup machines.
WHAT THEY SAID - ROC CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
What Sébastien Loeb said:
“To win the fifth ROC Champion of Champions is great for me,” said Loeb.
“It is also special to become the first driver to win both the ROC Nations Cup and the Champion of Champions at the same event.
“It really could not have been a better weekend for us.
“Once we won the Nations Cup, I had achieved something from the event and I could relax and enjoy myself even more.
“When I first came to the Race Of Champions I was a young driver and every time it is different.
“But the atmosphere is always the same, everyone is having fun and all the drivers are happy to share and discuss things and enjoy a few drinks.
“In the car, of course you want to win, but outside we are having a good time.
“I have to thank Fredrik (Johnsson) and his team for putting on another great event.”
What, Chaz Mostert said:
“Just to make the final as the first Australian was a real honor,” said Mostert.
“It was always going to be a big ask to beat an amazing nine-time World Rally Champion in the final, especially in a couple of rally/off-road vehicles, but we gave it a crack.
“To be honest, I felt more pressure yesterday, because I did not want to mess up the Nations Cup for my All Stars teammate Johan (Kristoffersson) after being a late call up.
“Today, if I was going to mess up, it was only myself who I was going to let down.
“Going in and out of different cars was really difficult at first, but by the end of the weekend you sort of got used to it and the car you were probably scared of the most at the start was one of my favorites by tonight.
“I have to thank Fredrik and Jessie (Johnsson) and the ROC team for the invitation and for putting on such a great event, hopefully I get invited back.
“I am not so sure how I would go on the snow in Sweden, I think I would probably be like a penguin on Bondi Beach.
“Although I must say that I was really enjoying the jump over the brige in the Rallycross car by the end of tonight.
“It was great to share the weekend with Will (Brown) and Brodie (Kostecki) and also with Molly (Taylor) and Toby (Price), all flying the Australian flag.”
What Fredrik Johnsson, Co-founder and President of Race Of Champions, said:
“This weekend was certainly a special one in the history of Race Of Champions,” said Johnsson.
“To have such an incredibly competitive ROC Nations Cup and Race Of Champions in our first event in the Southern Hemisphere was tremendously rewarding.
“Sébastien Loeb really is one of the greatest of all time and he keeps proving himself time and time again. For him to become a record five-time winner on the same weekend as winning the ROC Nations Cup for France is something historical.”
“I also don’t think we will forget the performance of the Australian drivers who were all making their debut at the event. They put on a fantastic show for the passionate Australian fans cheering them on.”
“I want to thank our partners from TEG Sport and Venues NSW for helping this come together and the team from Motorsport Australia and all our volunteers. I think Australia really got a taste of what Race Of Champions is all about and we leave here with a lot more fans than we had before we arrived.”
PREVIOUS - CHAMPIONS OF CHAMPIONS - WINNERS
FIVE-TIMES
Sébastien Loeb (France)
FOUR-TIMES
Didier Auriol (France)
Mattias Ekström (Sweden)
TWO-TIMES
Stig Blomqvist (Sweden)
Juha Kankkunen (Finland)
David Coulthard (United Kingdom)
ONE-TIME WINNERS
Juan Pablo Montoya (Columbia)
Carlos Sainz (Spain)
Tommi Mäkinen (Finland)
Harri Rovanperä (Finland)
Marcus Grönholm (Finland)
Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)
François Delecour (France)
Romain Grosjean (France)
Sébastien Ogier (France)
Andrea Aghini (Italy)
Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
Benito Guerra (Mexico)
Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal)
Timmy Hansen (Sweden)
Colin McRae (United Kingdom)
ROC SYDNEY 2025
The ROC Nations Cup takes place on Friday March 7, with drivers paired in teams based on nationality to bid for the title of ‘World’s Fastest Nation’.
The Saturday night (March 8) will see the individual Race Of Champions, when all teamwork goes out of the window and it will be a battle for individual glory and the ‘Champion of Champions’ title.
ROC is renowned for gathering some of the best drivers in the world, including superstars from Formula 1, Le Mans, Nascar, Supercars, World Rally and Rallycross.