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Lewis Hamilton beats Sebastian Vettel in Chinese Grand Prix

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton mastered Shanghai's changing conditions and stayed clear of squabbling rivals to win the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday. The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finished a surprise third to hand his Red Bull team their 100th podium. It was Hamilton's 54th career win and a record fifth in Shanghai. But it was the triple champion's first this season and returned Mercedes to the top of the podium after Vettel won last month's season-opening race for a resurgent Ferrari. "I'm so happy with my first win of the year and I can't believe it if I'm honest," said Hamilton after the race, which also handed him his 106th podium, putting him joint second with Alain Prost on the list of drivers with most rostrum results. "What I said to Sebastian as I left the last race ... I said I'm coming back in the next one. When I got on the podium it was like 'I told you'." MOTOR-F1-CHINA/ View 12 Photos Hamilton, who finished second to Vettel in Melbourne, heads into the next race in Bahrain in a week's time tied on points with the German. Mercedes, meanwhile, lead the constructors' standings by one point over Ferrari. Hamilton started from pole position, but the conditions were a bit of a lottery for all the drivers with the track damp in patches but drying quickly. He kept the lead off the line ahead of Vettel, who came under investigation for lining up out of position on his grid slot. The German, though, stayed second, fending off Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes, who had started third. Lance Stroll, the 18-year-old rookie, spun off the track on the first lap after making contact with Force India's Sergio Perez. The Canadian beached his Williams in the gravel, bringing out the virtual safety car. Vettel took the opportunity to dive into the pits to change to dry weather tires. His gamble backfired when Antonio Giovinazzi — standing in for Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber — crashed, bringing out the actual safety car two laps later. The four-times world champion found himself bottled up behind Ricciardo and his slower team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, costing him valuable time. As the trio squabbled for position, Hamilton pulled clear at the front. By the time Vettel managed to get past, with a series of spectacular overtaking moves that included banging wheels with his former team-mate, Hamilton was too far ahead.

Mercedes spotted testing new GLC-Class

Mercedes is set to replace its GLK-Class compact crossover with the new GLC, and here's our best look at it yet. Previewed in concept form with a sloping coupe-like roofline in Shanghai and previously spotted wearing swirly camouflage (in AMG form, no less), we can easily see from these latest spy shots that the GLC will ditch its predecessor's straight edges for a far more rounded form. Sort of like a C-Class, but taller. That, we gather, is kind of the point, as Mercedes moves to realign its crossovers with its sedan, wagon, coupe and convertible counterparts: GLC with C-Class, GLE (nee M-Class) with E-Class and GLS (GL) with the S-Class. And of course the GLA with the CLA and A-Class. Look for the new GLC to debut in June, soon to be accompanied by a chopped-roof version and offering similar powertrain options as the latest C-Class sedan. Hopefully the range will eventually include an AMG performance version, too. Related Video:

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.