A little later than usual here’s your pictorial reminder of the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix. There’s 87 pics to fill your racing boots this week. Be sure to check back in after the Spanish Grand Prix for more wallpaper-friendly F1 pics in a few weeks.
Category: Mercedes-Benz
Before we head off to Tasmania for a week to follow the close knit tarmac rally community here’s 93 photos from the Chinese Grand Prix. We hope you like them!
Here’s the full post-race press conference transcript from the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, featuring interviews with race winner Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and minor place getters Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG).
Before you get reading there’s some housekeeping from the race to cover. On lap 15 Mark Webber (Red Bull) collided with Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso). Stewards have apportioned blame for the incident to Webber and handed him a three spot grid penalty for the next race.
“I was coming from a reasonable distance behind, Jean-Eric was really wide,” explained Webber. “But when we came close to the apex he wanted to hit it, which he is entitled to do, but by then I was committed to the inside and the incident happened.
“It was a couple of laps before our pit stop window, so I had to come in early. The guys thought the tyre was fixed when we left the stop, but it came off on the out lap. We have had a few problems this weekend; I think we could have done something from our start position today, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
In happier news Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) reckons his seventh placing was well deserved. “The points are very welcome but the really good thing to take away from this is that I think we got to where we were with genuine pace,” he said. “I’ll have to look at a replay and see everything else that happened but I don’t think we benefited from getting lucky with strategy, I think the pace was there for us to finish seventh entirely on merit. And that’s a very nice feeling to take with me to Bahrain.”
[Pic: Ferrari]
Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) has made up for his first lap exit in Malaysia by collecting maximum points for the win at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Tyre strategy once again ruled the day and it was an odd race really. Nothing happened and everything happened. Drivers were asking their teams if they should be racing the car behind or letting it through, all due to tyre wear and their own individual strategies.
In the end the only real excitement was in the last few laps when Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), running a brand new set of soft compound tyres, was taking seconds per lap out of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG) in the chase for the final podium step. Hamilton was able to hang on for third, but only by a couple of tenths from the charging Vettel.
Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) was second and but for a mishap early in the race which left him with some minor damage to the front of his car he may have been able to put more pressure on Alonso who enjoyed victory with a margin of 10.1 seconds.
Mark Webber’s (Red Bull) horror weekend continued with his left rear wheel falling off as he was coasting back to pit lane with problems. This, after already being forced to start from pit lane due to his fuelling dramas from qualifying.
On the positive side for Australian F1 fans Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) took the six championship points on offer for seventh place. That’s a career best result for Daniel and we hope his improved form continues.
The stewards will be investigating a host of drivers after the race for using DRS in yellow flag conditions. Should that alter the race results we’ll be sure to let you know.
The F1 circus backs up next weekend in Bahrain. We’ll be away interstate at Targa Tasmania but will endeavour to cover proceedings as best we can.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden pole position for Mercedes AMG in qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix earlier today. His time of 1:34.484 gave him a relatively comfortable margin of almost three tenths back to Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus, 1:34.761) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:34.788).
The Mercedes duo have shown good pace all weekend and Nico Rosberg (1:34.861) may be a little disappointed to be starting on the second row.
Tyre strategy once again influenced the final qualifying session more than the FIA would probably like with no flying laps set until the closing minutes of the session and two drivers, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) failing to set a time at all.
You can add Jenson Button (McLaren, 2:05.673) to that list too. The only reason he completed his slow lap was to ensure he started ahead of Vettel. Both Vettel and Button will start the race on the longer wearing harder compound tyres (mediums), while all those ahead will be on the softs. Will Vettel’s sacrifice and lowly P9 grid position pay dividends?
It was a bit of a shambles for Red Bull today actually. Mark Webber managed just one flying lap in Q2 before being asked by the team to park his car due low fuel. He spent much of Q2 in the top 10, but as the track conditions improved those around him went faster and eventually bumped him down to P14. Worse was to come, though, and Mark will start the race from last place after being penalised as his car contained just 150ml of fuel, well below the one litre required for its mandatory sample.
In better news for Australian fans Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) made it into the top 10 and will start the race from P7. His teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne, could only manage a time good enough for P16.
For his weekly video update Chris Harris spent some quality time with the Mercedes-Benz SLS Electric Drive. That’s an all-electric 552kW/1000Nm supercar, in case you’d forgotten.
Okay, the downsides are familiar, the range is no match for a conventionally powered SLS and at around 2200kg this car is a lot heavier as well.
But just as the Prius was a starting point for Toyota’s hybrid technology, the SLS ED is a starting point for the electric-powered hypercar of tomorrow.
Half of this review is filled with Harris chewing the fat with a Mercedes spokesman. If you’re a true car nerd you will love it.
Last week Mercedes-Benz confirmed Australian pricing for the hi-po A45 AMG. Since then our inbox has received some extra info from the ubiquitous anonymous source. Much of it is already known but there’s some stuff that’s good to see in writing and some stuff that you may not have read as yet.
First, get your hands on this two page PDF (400kb) which lists the basic specs signed off for the local market.
Consider the A45 AMG offers 265kW/450Nm and can hit 100km/h in the mid four second range. So how cool is this:
Note, with a fuel usage classification of 6.9L/100km, the base A 45 AMG will not attract LCT. The current LCT limit for fuel efficient vehicles is $75,375, meaning an optioned A 45 AMG will attract LCT hence all option MRLPs are inclusive of LCT.
The world’s most powerful production four cylinder engine, hand built no less, has a fuel consumption figure allowing it to sneak under the luxury car tax threshold. Thank you Germany!
We’ve already listed the standard equipment Australian-delivered A45 AMGs will boast, and it is quite extensive for a Euro manufacturer, which just leaves, for now, three main optional extras:
- 19″ AMG Multi-spoke alloys in black – $490 (MRLP)
- AMG Aerodynamics Package – $1990 (MRLP)
- AMG Performance Suspension – $1990 (MRLP)
If you wanted to get your hands on the Edition 1 version, alas, our little birdy says it won’t be coming to Australia.
The 464kW Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series will be launched in Australia in July. And, if you want one, you’ll need to scrounge together the small matter of $639,000.
That’s quite a lot of money really.
But you know the best part? An AUSmotive reader has confirmed with us he has ordered one. Better still, he’s promised us a drive. Assuming all goes as planned; happy days ahead!
Thanks to AUSmotive’s exclusive tip-off it’s old news for our readers, of course, but Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific has today confirmed local pricing of the highly anticipated A45 AMG.
As expected $74,900 is the magic number (plus on-road costs).
For now Mercedes has confirmed the following specifications with more detail to follow ahead of the car’s local launch in September:
- 19†wheels
- AMG Performance Exhaust
- COMAND Online
- Intelligent Light System
- Panoramic Roof
- AMG Performance Seats with Electric Memory Function
- DISTRONIC PLUS
- Blind Spot & Lane Keep Assist driver assistance systems
Our previous article suggests you can expect to add night pack/privacy glass, metallic paint, satellite navigation with Bluetooth connectivity, digital radio and
Harmon Kardon Hi Fi to the above list of standard features.
It’s only a few months since the covers came off the stylish Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan at the Detroit Auto Show in January and already we have the cooking AMG version. Of course, we knew the CLA 45 AMG was coming thanks to last week’s leaked pics.
Most of the fruit is already known as it’s based on the A45 AMG hatch. Which means we can fire up the orchestra, sound the trumpets and declare: this car features the most powerful four cylinder production engine IN THE WORLD!
To remind you, then, the 2.0 litre turbocharged engine boasts an incredibly impressive 265kW/450Nm. Coupled to a 7-speed DCT and 4matic all-wheel drive system the CLA 45 AMG sees off 100km/h in 4.6 seconds. Equally impressive, perhaps, the CLA 45 AMG has a rated fuel consumption as low as 6.9l/100km.
How much would you expect to pay for all this? Well, we’re g;ad you asked, we have no official word from Mercedes but we reckon you should budget some 5–10 grand more than the price of the A45 AMG hatchback.
So, with the CLA 45 AMG and Audi S3 sedan, New York’s Auto Show has ushered in a couple of desirable German sedans that have been warmed over by their respective performance divisions.
Hmm, one can’t help but think back over a quarter of a century to the BMW E30 M3 and think, haven’t we seen this before? We cant deny these new hot sedans owe their existence to the hot hatchbacks that have preceded them, but it’s still nice to see we’re coming full circle, to a degree.
UPDATE 2 April: Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific has confirmed the CLA 45 AMG will go on sale locally before the end of this year, full details to be announced closer to launch.
So, the Malaysian Grand Prix, you may have heard about it. It’s a perfect snapshot of how the mainstream media in Australia handles Mark Webber.
Last week the local media tore shreds from Mark after his woeful start, which, funnily enough, ended up not being entirely his fault. Now, the media is lauding him as some sort of saint-in-waiting who has been dealt an unimaginable injustice by that devil in disguise named Sebastian Vettel.
It’s also an excellent example of how quickly the media world can force things to spiral things out of control; we’ll go into a bit that later.
Anyway, enough banter, here’s the pics from Sepang. We hope you like them.
“I think it’s something we need to think about, I need to think about but for sure, I can only say this, obviously, like I say, I made a mistake, I’m not proud of it. As I say, if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t do the same but obviously there’s a lot of things that need to come together, to put ourselves in a similar position but yeah, it’s definitely something that will be remembered or should be remembered.”
That was the answer Sebastian Vettel gave in the Malaysian Grand Prix post-race press conference when asked, “would you be ready, if there is the opportunity, to offer a victory to Mark?”
More than usual the driver quotes after this race are a fascinating read. We expect there’ll be a lot more to read regarding team orders at Red Bull between now and the Chinese Grand Prix in three weeks time.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]