2001 Mercedes Benz Slk320 Sport, Hard Top Convertable No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lewis Hamilton scores a record 80th pole in Japan, Vettel ninth

SUZUKA, Japan (Reuters) - Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton seized a record-extending 80th pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, timing his sole flying lap to perfection while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel managed only ninth. The Mercedes driver, in dominant form all weekend at the Suzuka circuit, pumped in a one minute 27.760 second lap on the super-soft tires while it was still only just spitting with rain. Vettel and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who went out on intermediate tires in the final part of qualifying with the track still dry, lost time coming back in to fit the super-soft tires. The German then made another mistake on his first flying lap and was unable to get another one in as the intermittent drizzle turned into a full-blown shower that drenched the track. Meanwhile, Hamilton – who along with team mate Valtteri Bottas had gone out straight away on the super-soft tires to beat the rain – was lighting up the timing screens. "The team have done an amazing job this weekend, and the call that we made for Q3 was probably the most difficult," said the Briton, joined by Bottas on the front row after the Finn completed a second successive Mercedes front row lockout. "It's so difficult when the pressure is on to make the right call but that's the big difference between us this year and that's why we're the best and the team deserve it," added Hamilton. Vettel trails his fellow four-times champion by 50 points in the standings with just four races left after Japan. His hopes are fading fast and he needs a huge stroke of luck now to reignite his challenge. "Obviously it's not the position we deserve to be in," said the 31-year-old. "I think we have better speed than ninth but we'll start there and see how it goes. "Anything can happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new day." RICCIARDO FUMES Vettel's misfortune allowed 21-year-old Dutch driver Max Verstappen to qualify third for Red Bull. "We have a bigger chance now to be on the podium," said Verstappen, doubting that he would need to worry too much about the others' title battle: "Is it still a battle? I'm not sure," he said. While the Dutchman celebrated, teammate Daniel Ricciardo was left hoarse with anger after a power unit problem sidelined him during the second phase of qualifying before he had set a time. The Australian, as a consequence, is set to start 15th. "I just can't catch a break," said Ricciardo, who is leaving Red Bull for Renault at the end of the year.

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a technological tour de force [w/video]

UPDATE: It turns out we won't get the Park Pilot remote parking feature after all. The Mercedes-Benz engineers in Germany said we would, but an update from the US product team says otherwise. The reason, according the Mercedes-Benz, is that remote parking is a feature of Mercedes connect me, the smartphone connected services app used in other countries. Merceds currently offers MBrace in the United States. This could change over the life cycle of the E-Class, but no announcements have been made. The text below is updated to reflect this new information. If there's a theme to the next Mercedes-Benz E-Class, it's technology stuff. No "and," no hashtag. Just technology stuff. The car is so loaded with new and updated features that it eclipses the S-Class as the brand's leading edge automobile just two years after the flagship's debut. The world of automotive technology is progressing at an exponential rate akin to Moore's Law, and the E-Class is at the front of the curve. For the sake of brevity (and totally not for SEO gamesmanship), the 2017 E-Class has so many new and improved features we're just going to list them: remote control parking via a smartphone app, NFC-based unlock and vehicle start using your smartphone, 84-LED adaptive headlights, Vehicle-to-X communication, evasive maneuver assistance that identifies pedestrians and helps you steer away from danger, adaptive cruise control that sets the speed based on road signs, adaptive steering that can follow a car in front even without lane markings, active emergency braking for cross-traffic, rear-seat seatbelt airbags, an air bladder that pushes front-seat occupants towards the center of the car before a side impact, and an audio system that triggers your eardrum's reflexes to prevent hearing damage in a crash. And that huge list is all we know so far – Mercedes hasn't talked about powertrain, chassis, or infotainment yet. We're also told that all of these features will be available when the E-Class comes to the States early next year. Unlike other automakers, which save the fancy tech for Europe, Mercedes will give us all most of the goodies. Here's a breakdown of each item. Park By Smartphone Unfortunately one of the coolest features on the new E-Class is the one that won't come stateside. Mercedes calls its autonomous parking Park Pilot, and it's similar to the remote control parking recently shown on the BMW 7 Series.

Race Recap: 2015 US Grand Prix was wet, wild, and historic

Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico this weekend, and made her presence known throughout the South. For two of the three days of the grand prix weekend it rained non-stop in Austin, so badly on Saturday that qualifying had to be postponed until Sunday morning, and then it only stayed dry enough to conduct the first two sessions. At the end of a tricky, slippery Q2 Nico Rosberg had put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on the front row, one tenth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. The German had done the best he could to keep his hair-thin chances of a World Championship fight alive. Daniel Ricciardo lined his Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis in third ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat, both drivers having moved up a place because Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took a ten-spot grid penalty for using a fifth engine and dropped to 13th. Continuing the two-up theme, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were fifth and sixth for Force India. After that came variety: Felipe Massa in seventh for Williams, Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso in eighth, Fernando Alonso looking good in the rain for McLaren in ninth, and Romain Grosjean for Lotus in tenth. When the lights went out, Turn 1 set the tone. Pole position is on the outside line at Circuit of the Americas, and Hamilton had got himself far enough under Rosberg by the time the two got up the hill that Rosberg had to stick to the outside through the corner. At the corner exit Hamilton used the entire track, pushing Rosberg wide, their cars touching. As Rosberg left the track and dropped back to fourth, Hamilton radioed to the team to say the contact was unintentional. The two Mercedes' and two Red Bulls animated the front. Rosberg passed Ricciardo at the end of a Virtual Safety Car period employed to let the marshals clean the debris at Turn 1. Kvyat started chasing down Hamilton until the Russian ran wide and let Rosberg and Ricciardo through, then Rosberg ran wide on the next lap to let Ricciardo through. On Lap 15, Ricciardo passed Hamilton through the esses to take the lead. After the first round of pit stops the Aussie still had the lead, followed by Rosberg, Kvyat, Hamilton, and Vettel. Then Rosberg got around to take the lead and Vettel closed in on Hamilton as the Brit duked it out with the Russian. Rosberg showed excellent speed, building up a nine-second gap on Ricciardo, but a Safety Car period erased that when Marcus Ericsson had to park his dead Sauber on the inside of the track after Turn 10.