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Vettel steals victory from Hamilton in Australian Grand Prix

MELBOURNE, March 25 – Sebastian Vettel made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton and hold off the frustrated champion to win Formula One's season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The Mercedes engine's infamous 'party mode' that delivered Hamilton a blistering pole lap on Saturday could do little once Ferrari's Vettel nosed ahead when re-entering from pit-lane midway through the race at Albert Park. Pole-sitter Hamilton had appeared set to coast to victory with a clear pace advantage but the race turned on its head with the safety car, which was called after Romain Grosjean's Haas failed and rolled to a stop at turn two. In another bonus for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen finished third, fending off Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and leaving the unlucky Australian still searching for a first podium in his home race. "We got a bit lucky." Four-times world champion Vettel claimed a 48th overall win and his third in Melbourne following his victories at Albert Park last year and in 2011. "It was needless to say we got a bit lucky with the timing of the safety car," the German, who had started from third place and inherited the lead when Hamilton and Raikkonen had pitted earlier in the race, told reporters. "It's not the easiest track to pass." For Hamilton, the result was a bitter pill to swallow and had echoes of last year's race. Vettel also managed to re-enter in front of him from pit-lane in 2017 before burning away to victory while the pole-sitting Briton was blocked by traffic. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his team had miscalculated the margin between the cars during the safety car period. "We thought we had enough margin," he told the BBC. "It must have been a software bug in the system that caused us to get it wrong. We are digging deep now to understand where we had a problem." "I don't understand what's happened." Hamilton, who cockily spoke of "wiping the smile off" Vettel's face with his pole lap on Saturday, battled to keep positive. "Even now I don't understand what's happened," the 33-year-old told reporters. "I did everything I believe I was supposed to do." After the pit-lane setback, Hamilton drove hard to reel in Vettel and battled back after taking a slide at a corner that blew out the lead to nearly three seconds. But he finally waved the white flag in the closing laps to preserve the car for future races.

McLaren Racing will return to Mercedes F1 engines from 2021

SOCHI, Russia — McLaren will be reunited with Mercedes engines from the 2021 season as the former champions go back to using the German manufacturer's power units in their bid to return to the top. The Woking-based team are currently supplied by Renault, having joined forces with the French company last year. They will see out that deal, which runs until the end of 2020, before making the switch back to Mercedes as part of a long-term agreement until at least 2024. "We are delighted to welcome McLaren back to the Mercedes-Benz racing family with this new power unit supply agreement," said Mercedes' motorsports head Toto Wolff in a joint statement with McLaren issued at the Russian Grand Prix on Saturday. "We hope that this new long-term agreement marks another milestone for McLaren as they aim to take the fight to the sport's top teams, including our Mercedes works team." The McLaren-Mercedes partnership initially ran from 1995 to the end of 2014. It turned McLaren, enduring a slump after their heady days of dominance during the late 1980s and early 90s with Honda, into a force to be reckoned with once again. The combination won 78 races, a constructors' title and three drivers' titles with Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999) and Lewis Hamilton who raced to his first Formula One title with the team in 2008. McLaren find themselves in a similar phase now, rebuilding after three dismal years with Honda, the Japanese manufacturer they rejoined forces with at the end of 2014 in a bid to recreate their dominance from 30 years ago. Fielding a fresh driver line up of British rookie Lando Norris and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, they have made big strides this year and are currently locked in a battle for fourth in the overall standings with Renault's works team. But they haven't won a race since the season-ending 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when they were still powered by Mercedes. "Renault has been instrumental to our Formula One recovery plan and a fantastic partner to McLaren Racing," said Zak Brown, chief executive of McLaren Racing. "This agreement is an important step in our long-term plan to return to success in Formula One." McLaren's new deal with the German manufacturer, whose power units have set the benchmark in Formula One's turbo-hybrid era, coincides with a planned rules overhaul aimed at leveling the playing field and creating better racing. The shake-up could be just what a team like McLaren need to make that final jump up to the top.

2022 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance Mega Gallery | The show in pictures

COMO, Italy — Held annually, the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance is, in many ways, Europe's version of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It takes place in a beautiful location, and it brings together an impressive selection of rare and valuable cars. It's a real treat for the eyes, the ears, and, if you're into champagne, the palate. The 2022 edition of the show was no exception: About 50 cars were shipped to Lake Como from over a dozen countries, and it wasn't just the usual suspects. Sure, there were a lot of pre-war cars (including a couple of one-off models), but some of the icons that younger enthusiasts grew up with (like the Lamborghini Countach) were present as well. This year's event was split into eight categories: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design, The Supercharged Mercedes-Benz, How Grand Entrances Were Once Made, Eight Decades of Ferrari Represented in Eight Icons, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," BMW's M Cars and Their Ancestors, Pioneers That Chased the Magic 300 KPH, And a design award for concept and prototypes. The jury gave the coveted "best of show" award to a 1937 Bugatti 57 S owned by Andrew Picker of Monaco, while the aforementioned classes were won by, respectively: The Bugatti 57 S, shown below, A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, A 1956 Chrysler Boano Coupe Speciale, A 1966 Ferrari 356 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti, A 1961 Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, A 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL, A 1989 Porsche 959 Sport, And the Bugatti Bolide concept unveiled in 2020. Winning at Villa d'Este is a big deal: The cars are judged by a panel of highly experienced judges. No one gave me a scoring sheet, presumably out of fear that I'd award points to the late-model Fiat 600 lurking in the parking lot, but several cars that didn't win an award caught my eye. One is a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a grand-prix racer that was once owned by King Leopold III of Belgium and that has never been restored — its patina is inimitable. Another is a 1961 BMW 700 RS. One of two built (the other is in the BMW collection), it's a tiny, ultra-light roadster related to the 700 and powered by a 697-cubic-centimeter air-cooled flat-twin tuned to develop 70 horsepower. It won several hill-climb events during the 1960s, and it's one of the rarest cars ever to wear a BMW roundel. Aston Martin's freshly-restored 1979 Bulldog concept was cool to see as well; check out the cassette player integrated into the headliner!