1997 Ferrari 456 Gta Black With Tan Fresh Service Only 9700 Miles on 2040-cars

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The Monaco Grand Prix clearly highlights Ferrari's team orders

Sebastian Vettel stretched his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to 25 points on Sunday after becoming the first Ferrari driver since Michael Schumacher in 2001 to win Formula One's showcase Monaco Grand Prix. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, on pole for the first time in nine years, lost out in the pitstops but secured a Ferrari one-two with Hamilton finishing seventh for Mercedes after starting 13th. The German celebrated as jubilantly as his seven times champion compatriot would have done, whooping over the radio and beaming from the podium as mechanics sang the Italian national anthem. "It's obviously a great day for the team... great to get the points, great to get the win," said Vettel. As with Schumacher in his pomp there was also a distinct whiff of 'team orders', with Raikkonen pitting first and Vettel staying out for a further five laps in a move that worked in his favor. Vettel's 45th career win was the German's third in six races but there was plenty of sympathy for Raikkonen, who last won with Lotus in 2013. The Finn looked far from happy on the podium, staring fixedly ahead and taking gulps of the Champagne as Vettel sprayed his. "It's still second place but it doesn't feel awful good," he said. "It's how it goes sometimes." "I know how it feels, it's not a good feeling," reigning champion Nico Rosberg, who retired at the end of last year after years of battling Hamilton at Mercedes, consoled him as he conducted the post-race interviews on the finish straight. Australian Daniel Ricciardo took his second successive podium with third place for Red Bull. MINIMAL OVERTAKING In a race with plenty of sunshine and minimal overtaking, late crashes ensured the safety car made its traditional Monaco appearance. While Raikkonen led for the first 34 laps, the writing was on the wall at the pitstops with a consensus emerging already before the start that Ferrari would favor the championship leader. "It was a very tense race. I knew that (staying out) was the chance to win and I was able to use that window and come out ahead. After that I was able to control the gap behind," said Vettel. What had been a processional race, with the wider new cars making overtaking more difficult, turned into sudden drama with a collision between Jenson Button's McLaren and Pascal Wehrlein's Sauber at the tunnel entrance.

Ferrari 250 GTO could fetch as much as $75 million at auction

Last month we reported on a Ferrari 250 GTO heading for the auction block at Pebble Beach. We knew at the time it would break records and bring in tens of millions of dollars. But now that the gavel is about to drop, it looks like even our projections could fall short.
According to a report on Bloomberg, citing the classic car authorities at Hagerty Insurance, the GTO in question (pictured above) could fetch upwards of $60 million and as much as $75 million when the auction takes place two days from now in Monterey, CA.
Hagerty's reported estimate would not only blow the previous records out of the water, but would eclipse the pre-sale estimate attributed to Bonhams, the auction house handling its sale, which placed its value between $30 million and $40 million.

This rare vintage Ferrari is not like the others

This particular Ferrari profiled by Petrolicious is attached to many of the vital names we've come to associate with the brand, like Dino, Scaglietti, Ascari, and Formula 1. What it doesn't have is the kind of engine we've come to associate with Maranello: at the front of that delicious bodywork is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 172 horsepower. The car is a 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II Scaglietti-bodied spider, its engine derived from the 2.0-liter engine used in the Ferrari 500 race car that Alberto Ascari used to win the F1 World Championship in 1952 and 1953. We can only wonder if any of today's cars will provide the same joy at being a barn find as this one did for its affable owner, retired US Navy Admiral Robert Phillips. He discovered it in the back of a dealership in 1960 - it had been sitting unused in Ohio and California for years - and almost walked away from it. He only bought it when he realized it had a four-pot engine. He paid two-thirds of his yearly salary at the time for it, the handsome sum of $2,225. In today's money that's about $18,000. Phillips says there are only three left with the original engines, so odds are that his car's value is exponentially more than the inflation-adjusted purchase price. One of them is going on the block with RM Auctions next month which looks a lot like this one, and they've listed it as "Price on Request." Phillips is our kind of owner, though - one who believes his car is meant to be driven, and who wants to pass it on to another driver when the time comes. His vehicle has quite the history, too, making its way to the Americas thanks to a call from the president of Venezuela to Enzo Ferrari. Check out the video for its beautiful story. Related Video: