2009 Mercedes-benz C-class C300 Damaged Repairable Fixer Salvage Runs! Must See! on 2040-cars

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Valtteri Bottas on pole for Formula One's 1,000th race

Valtteri Bottas will start Formula One's 1,000th world championship race from pole position after leading Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton in a front row lockout at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel qualified third, ahead of 21-year-old Monegasque team mate Charles Leclerc who was unable to repeat his Bahrain Grand Prix pole of two weeks ago. Bottas, who won the season opener in Australia and leads defending champion Hamilton by one point in the standings, was the third different driver to take pole this season in three races. "The lap was OK, not completely how I wanted. Luckily it was good enough for pole," smiled the Finn, who pipped Hamilton by 0.023 seconds after setting a best time of one minute 31.547. "Lewis also managed to improve a lot during the qualifying and it was super-close." The pole was a first for Bottas since Russia last September and the seventh of his career. It was also his first in China where Mercedes have won five of the last seven races. Hamilton sounded happy just to be on the front row, despite six previous poles in Shanghai, after looking out of sorts in practice. "I didn't give up, I kept pushing right to the end. Big congratulations to Valtteri, he's been stellar all weekend and I've been struggling and fighting the car," said the Briton. "To be as close as we are at the end is fantastic. An incredible result for the team. There was a little bit more time left on the table there but that's cool, I'll try and get it tomorrow," added Hamilton. UNHAPPY VERSTAPPEN Ferrari had arrived in China as favorites after showing their speed in Bahrain, particularly on the straights, with Leclerc on pole and leading until a loss of engine power in the closing laps. While unable to match the quick-cornering Mercedes cars for overall pace in Shanghai, Vettel hoped to be closer on Sunday thanks to the track's main straight being more than a kilometer long. "I think there was maybe a little bit more but overall not enough to beat these guys today," said the 31-year-old German, a four times world champion. "If we get close we could have an advantage in a straight line." The top 10 positions went two-by-two in team order, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly fifth and sixth and ahead of the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg – the Australian just 0.004 ahead of the German.

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Aston Martin Vantage vs. Mercedes-AMG GT C Review | Translating German into English

GROssBRITANNIEN — No car matches the new Aston Martin Vantage as closely as the Mercedes-AMG GT, the two sharing both their 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and electrical architecture while competing for the same market niche. So, of the many challenges Aston Martin faced when developing it, ensuring that the Vantage had a unique identity must have weighed more heavily than any other. The added spice to this confrontation is the GT's status as halo model for AMG. Meanwhile, Aston Martin's brand identity, built on the sharp-suited machismo embodied by a certain big-screen spy, is a make-or-break issue for the company. The identity problem has fascinated me since the AMG deal was first announce in 2013. So exploring the Vantage on British roads with the GT literally filling the mirrors is a big deal. Now, finally, we have directly competing products with which to explore the theory. And there's much to like in both, not least of which is that common powerhouse of an engine. While they don't share a platform, both use the classic front-engine, rear-drive, transaxle layout, with traditional driving manners to match. Some quick number-crunching as an appetizer: The AMG GT C you see here has the dry-sumped M178 derivative of the V8, with 550 horsepower and 501 pound-feet of torque, driving the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and fully active electronic locking differential. It's 179 inches long, weighs 3,748 pounds and will clear 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds en route to 197 mph. The Vantage has the wet-sumped M177 version of the same engine, as featured in countless AMGs and shared with the DB11 V8. It makes 503 hp, 505 lb-ft and drives the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, eight-speed automatic gearbox and fully active electronic locking differential. Sounding familiar? It's comparable in overall length but a couple of inches longer in wheelbase, and weighs pretty much the same as the GT C, give or take a few pounds. It hits 60 in 3.5 seconds and tops out at 195 mph. Both have adaptive dampers and a variety of driver modes, both are built from aluminum and both are at the sportier end of the GT spectrum. The two U.K.-market cars you see here cost just more than $180,000 with options. Pretty darned close, then. Numbers are one thing.