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Race Recap: 2015 US Grand Prix was wet, wild, and historic

Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico this weekend, and made her presence known throughout the South. For two of the three days of the grand prix weekend it rained non-stop in Austin, so badly on Saturday that qualifying had to be postponed until Sunday morning, and then it only stayed dry enough to conduct the first two sessions. At the end of a tricky, slippery Q2 Nico Rosberg had put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on the front row, one tenth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. The German had done the best he could to keep his hair-thin chances of a World Championship fight alive. Daniel Ricciardo lined his Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis in third ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat, both drivers having moved up a place because Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took a ten-spot grid penalty for using a fifth engine and dropped to 13th. Continuing the two-up theme, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were fifth and sixth for Force India. After that came variety: Felipe Massa in seventh for Williams, Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso in eighth, Fernando Alonso looking good in the rain for McLaren in ninth, and Romain Grosjean for Lotus in tenth. When the lights went out, Turn 1 set the tone. Pole position is on the outside line at Circuit of the Americas, and Hamilton had got himself far enough under Rosberg by the time the two got up the hill that Rosberg had to stick to the outside through the corner. At the corner exit Hamilton used the entire track, pushing Rosberg wide, their cars touching. As Rosberg left the track and dropped back to fourth, Hamilton radioed to the team to say the contact was unintentional. The two Mercedes' and two Red Bulls animated the front. Rosberg passed Ricciardo at the end of a Virtual Safety Car period employed to let the marshals clean the debris at Turn 1. Kvyat started chasing down Hamilton until the Russian ran wide and let Rosberg and Ricciardo through, then Rosberg ran wide on the next lap to let Ricciardo through. On Lap 15, Ricciardo passed Hamilton through the esses to take the lead. After the first round of pit stops the Aussie still had the lead, followed by Rosberg, Kvyat, Hamilton, and Vettel. Then Rosberg got around to take the lead and Vettel closed in on Hamilton as the Brit duked it out with the Russian. Rosberg showed excellent speed, building up a nine-second gap on Ricciardo, but a Safety Car period erased that when Marcus Ericsson had to park his dead Sauber on the inside of the track after Turn 10.

Mercedes-Benz Concept GLC Coupe comes to China ready to fight BMW's X4

There's little denying that small crossovers are hot right now. Not only are automakers scrambling to exploit the popularity of the market, they're doing so by offering unique twists on the traditional two-box body style – enter the coupe-like four-door CUV. BMW, for example, has the X4, and now, Mercedes-Benz is bringing a challenger of its own. While it wears the concept name, the new GLC Coupe clearly foreshadows a production model that'll duke it out with the aforementioned BMW. If the vehicle shown above is any indication, when that fight happens, Mercedes will enter it with design on its side. The sheetmetal is muscular, with strong lines on the profile and the hood, while major themes in the front, back and sides are reminiscent of higher-end Silver Arrows. While we doubt the production GLC Coupe will be much of a trail bomber, fore and aft scuff plating is there to give the impression it can handle itself off road. Also, we feel obligated to give Mercedes bonus design points for the diagonally stacked quad exhausts at the back. It's worth noting that the Concept GLC Coupe's styling previews not one but two production vehicles, as it's logical to assume the design language featured here will have a strong influence on the next GLC (the crossover formerly known as the GLK). Not only will the GLC Coupe have aesthetics on its side, at 15.5-feet long and riding on a 111.4-inch wheelbase, it's larger than its rival from Munich, too, although only just. The X4 is two inches shorter overall and has an extra 0.8 inches between the axles. The Benz is wider, too, at 78.7 inches, compared to 74.1. Lending credence to the Concept GLC Coupe's production status, Mercedes released a pretty substantial array of technical details on its new four-door, coupe-crossover. With a twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter V6 punching out 367 horsepower and 387 pound-feet of torque, we're betting this would be the AMG Sport variant, rather than your everyday GLC. 4Matic all-wheel drive is a must-have in this segment, and it's present here, while a nine-speed automatic transmission is responsible for distributing power. The Concept GLC Coupe will be shown this week at the 2015 Shanghai Motor Show. Check back then for more. Mercedes-Benz Concept GLC Coupe The next coup Stuttgart / Shanghai. In a flowing transition, Mercedes-Benz lands the next coup: the Concept GLC Coupe is a near-production-standard study that carries the successful GLE Coupe formula over into a more compact segment.

Recharge Wrap-up: BMW i3 goes against Mercedes B-Class ED, Tesla good for business

Car and Driver has published a comparison test pitting the 2014 BMW i3 against the 2014 Mercedes-Benz B-class Electric Drive. The test not only measured the quality of the driving experience, but also all the quantitative details that are especially important when looking at electric vehicles. For instance, the Benz's real-world MPGe surpassed its own rating, but it still couldn't match the BMW. The B-Class, though, won in the range department. We won't spoil all the results, or Car and Driver's overall pick, but you can head over to the article to find out for yourself. Tesla's expanding business, including the Gigafactory being built in Reno, NV, is encouraging growth in the locales and associated businesses. Some of Tesla's suppliers are talking of relocation, wanting to be close to the action stirred up by the electric automaker's expansion. It makes good business sense to be in the same neighborhood as Tesla. "We can react quickly, and our engineers are constantly working with Tesla," says Futuris General Manager Sam Coughlin. Brookings Institute fellow Jennifer Vey says, "The land around Tesla is being redeveloped and reimagined. It's a mash-up of an anchor campus, startups, housing and transit, in a physically compact area where companies can cluster and connect." Read more at San Jose Mercury News. EVs are doing even more to reduce energy use clean up the air, according to new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists. According to findings, 60 percent of Americans now live in areas where EVs do more to reduce emissions than hybrids, up from 45 percent in 2012. Average electricity use is now 0.325 kWh per mile, down five percent from 2011. EV performance - in terms of mileage and emissions - is improving compared to traditional fuel vehicles, based on the sources of electricity in various regions. Read more from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Zipcar's carsharing network has launched in Paris. Zipcar is expanding across Europe, and has already established itself in Austria, Spain and the UK. According to Zipcar France's General Manager Etienne Hermite, "In a highly populated city, Zipcar's model has been proven to remove up to 15 personally owned vehicles from the road for each Zipcar in service, reducing parking demand, congestion and emissions." Zipcar European President Massimo Marsili hopes that most Parisians will eventually be just a short walk from a Zipcar.