2008 Mercedes-benz Gl550 Amg 4matic W/navigation & Rear Entertainment on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix, takes 17-point lead over Vettel

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix in a commanding Mercedes one-two on Sunday to stretch his Formula One lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth, to 17 points. The victory, in a race that stayed dry despite the threat of rain, was the Briton's second of the season, 64th of his career and third at the Circuit de Catalunya. It also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position. "This is more like it, let's keep this up," Hamilton told his celebrating team over the radio as he swept past the checkered flag. "Today the car and myself, I felt that synergy which I hadn't been feeling for the whole year," he added in a pre-podium interview after parking up in pit lane. "It's a good feeling." Hamilton's win followed on from the lucky victory that fell into his lap in Azerbaijan two weekends ago, but Sunday had nothing to do with chance and all to do with the champions being back to their best. He now has 95 points to Vettel's 78 after five rounds of the 21-race championship. Mercedes regained the lead in the constructors' standings and are now 27 points clear of Ferrari who had 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen retire from the race. Finland's Valtteri Bottas was second, a hefty 20.5 seconds behind, with Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen completing the podium for Red Bull – his first of an incident-filled season. Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull, ahead of Denmark's Kevin Magnussen for Haas and Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Renault) and Fernando Alonso (eighth for McLaren). Sainz's points lifted Renault ahead of McLaren and into fourth place by a single point. Mexican Sergio Perez was ninth for Force India and Monegasque rookie Charles Leclerc took the final point for Sauber. While Hamilton pulled away cleanly at the start, and Vettel passed Bottas into the first corner for second place, there was carnage behind as Romain Grosjean spun his Haas in a cloud of smoke. The Frenchman then collected the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso in a major smash, fortunately without injury, that brought out the safety car for the first six laps. Stewards gave him two penalty points and imposed a three-place grid drop for the next race in Monaco.

2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class First Drive

The name has changed, but the song remains, well, mostly the same. The updated 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class (nee M-Class) is all about refinement and a new attitude. Further up the range things have gone all Daft Punk – harder, better, faster, stronger. Merc's bread-and-butter SUV was last revamped in 2012, and this redesign essentially grafts the company's new corporate face and tail onto the vehicle formerly known as ML. A two-bar grille runs the expanse between stretched headlights. Above them sits a more sculpted hood with dual power lines. Below all that is a bumper with three large intakes, similar to Mercedes' sedans. The sides are untouched, but in back you'll find a new LED taillight design and trapezoidal tailpipe finishers. On the AMG Line trim pictured here, the elements rendered in chrome on the base model – like the central guard in front and diffuser panel in back – are done in black. The interior changes start with the driver staring at a new three-spoke steering wheel front-and-center, and a larger, eight-inch infotainment display on the right. That screen stands proud of the instrument panel, with two vents flanking it to remind you this isn't a clean redesign. Compare that to the freestanding tablet look, like on the C-Class, and you'll get what we're talking about. Below the big screen are the infotainment and HVAC controls that we've been looking at since 2012. The center stack newness ends there. Below the big screen are the infotainment and HVAC controls that we've been looking at since 2012. They feel really old now – perhaps because these same dials and buttons were in the E-Class sedan in mid-2009. The controls on the console, however, are overhauled, with the glossy, swoosh-shaped COMAND controller taking up residence next to the driver's arm. Beside that are a few buttons controlling functions like ride height and hill descent control, as well as the new Dynamic Select knob. This dial controls up to six driving modes. There's Comfort, Sport, Slippery, Off-Road Light, and Individual. Buyers who opt for the Off-Road Package will get a sixth mode, Off-Road+. Mercedes expects only 10 percent of GLE customers will want that capability. Every GLE comes with the basic five-setting Dynamic Select knob, no matter which of the five engines are under the hood. Here's where things get tricky, so we'll list the details for the sake of clarity.

Rain prolongs the Championship battle | 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix recap

Rain and an old-school circuit are the antidotes to Formula 1's constricting technical regulations and Tilke tracks. At Brazil's Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – otherwise known as Interlagos – rain Saturday night and on race day washed away everyone's careful plans, except for those of the man at the front of the pack. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas ahead of the field throughout the weekend. On Sunday, a storm-delayed start behind the Safety Car assured Hamilton of a clean path to the lead and a clear track. The Briton didn't waste it, pulling out a gap on teammate Nico Rosberg behind, and Rosberg appeared to have no interest in going hard after Hamilton. Safety Cars and red flags kept resetting the gap to zero, though. After the Mercedes-AMG GT S led the first seven laps, it emerged again on Lap 13 for another six laps when Marcus Ericsson crashed his Sauber. Seconds after racing resumed, Kimi Raikkonen aquaplaned his Ferrari into the wall on the front straight. That caused the first red flag, leading to another eight-lap Safety Car interval, then a second red flag stoppage due to conditions on Lap 28, then three more Safety Car laps, and then, finally, racing again. Hamilton never surrendered his lead. The Briton changed tires once during a stoppage, and drove fast enough to cover the full race distance despite the intermissions. Afterward, he said "it was a very easy race." Rosberg had it harder, defending against the preternatural Max Verstappen in third. Barring misfortune it's already clear the Red Bull pilot has at least one Driver's Championship in his career future. In Brazil the young Dutchman drove like he's worthy of the hardware right now. After Verstappen passed Rosberg for second on Lap 34, the Red Bull driver pitted for intermediate tires on Lap 44 – a huge gamble in the conditions – coming back out in fifth. That tire wager failed, giving Rosberg a safe position in second when Verstappen had to pit for extreme wets on Lap 54 of 71. The teenager re-emerged in 16th. Over the race's final 17 laps Verstappen passed 13 drivers at six different places on track. He ran it close-but-clean a couple of times, especially when getting around Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez, but he was simply untouchable. Not only did the Dutchman score an amazing third place, he put in what could be the drive of the season.