Race Of Champions: WRC2's Benito Guerra shocks with home win

Mexican driver Guerra clinched his shock home win in the Champion of Champions event by beating 2013 World Endurance champion and ROC rookie Duval 2-0 in the head-to-head final shootout - sealing the title in the Mexican-assembled Vuhl 05 track day car.

Guerra had previously only entered the ROC in 2012 after winning the Production WRC, but beat Formula 1 drivers Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly on his way to his '19 title.

His passage through to the final was achieved by knocking out Mercedes F1 simulator driver Esteban Gutierrez by 0.1s in the ROC buggies during the semi-finals.

Duval's run to the final was sealed with a win against 2018 Indy Lights champion Patricio O'Ward in KTM X-Bows. O'Ward's presence meant three Mexicans made it through to the semi-finals on the ROC's first visit to the country.

Last year's Champion of Champions David Coulthard had a competition to forget, getting knocked out in the group stages having failed to win a single race. His defeat to O'Ward in the ROC buggies was compounded by losing to Tom Kristensen in the UTVs.

Vettel's similar failure to progress beyond the groups guaranteed a brand new ROC winner early on.

Mick Schumacher looked like an early contender for overall victory having knocked out Vettel, a day after the pair had made it to the Nations Cup final as Team Germany team-mates.

But Schumacher's chances were ended thanks to Gutierrez in the quarter finals, the European Formula 3 champion a full second slower in the KTM battle.

Car reliability issues shook the challenges of both 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez.

In his contest with Gasly, Hunter-Reay lost over 2.5s by slowing for an errant yellow flag. But in the rematch he was unable to make amends, and failed to progress out of his group.

Owing to the competition's rules that mechanical troubles be reported prior to the race start, Suarez was unable to face Schumacher again after an issue that forced the throttle pedal to go stiff in his Vuhl during the group phases cost him any chance of victory.