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Race Recap: 2014 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix [spoilers]

The Malaysian Grand Prix is always one of the jokers on the Formula One calendar: you know it's going to rain during the weekend, but you don't know when. This year it began during qualifying, the dammed up clouds over the Sepang track dumping their reservoirs just before Q1 and causing a 50-minute delay.
The conditions helped Infiniti Red Bull Racing close the gap on Mercedes AMG Petronas and split the Silver Arrows cars, Sebastian Vettel lining up in second on the grid behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton, ahead of Nico Rosberg. Fernando Alonso recovered from a suspension-damaging incident with Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kyvat to take fourth, followed by the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth, then the off-form Kimi Räikkönen in sixth in the second Ferrari, Nico Hülkenberg in the Force India, star rookie Kevin Magnussen in the first McLaren ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the second McLaren finishing up the top ten.
After that, though, the clouds decided they were done with F1. Save a few drop at the final corners during the race, the track stayed completely dry. And except for the beginning and the end, for the most part, so was the race.

The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix flipped all the scripts

The Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit and the Hungaroring fly the flag for processional races, yet Spain's Circuit de Catalunya is arguably as bad. Before this weekend, the pole-sitter won the race 19 times out of the last 25 years. The front row of the grid produced 23 winners in the past 25 years. The racing gods edited that script this year, when a first-lap crash and two mid-race strategy changes kept things open until the end of the 66-lap race. It started when Mercedes-AMG Petronas teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton took each other out on Lap 1. After Rosberg passed pole-sitter Hamilton into Turn 1, Rosberg's car slowed through Turn 3, somehow in the wrong mode. Hamilton closed in on Rosberg so quickly that once the Brit ducked inside for the pass, he couldn't back out. Rosberg, however, closed the door so suddenly that Hamilton had no choice but to drive onto the grass. When Hamilton spun, he collected Rosberg and both Mercedes' ended up in the gravel trap. The stewards deemed it a racing incident. The crash put Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in the lead, followed by Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz and the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Both Ferraris cleared Sainz by Lap 10, leaving 56 laps for them to haul in the Red Bulls. Ferrari loosely followed Red Bull's pit strategies. Ricciardo pitted on Laps 11 and 28, Vettel pitted on Laps 15 and 37. Verstappen pitted on Laps 12 and 35, Raikkonen pitted on Laps 13 and 36. Pirelli predicted a three-stop race as the fastest and that the medium tire could only go about 23 laps. Verstappen and Raikkonen didn't get those memos. So while Ricciardo and Vettel came in for third stops the Dutchman and the Finn stayed out, with Verstappen ahead of Raikkonen at the front of the race as of Lap 43. That's when Verstappen – 18 years and 227 days old – proved how good a driver he is, lapping perfectly as second-place Raikkonen closed the gap to a little more than half a second. The Finn still couldn't get past the Dutchman down the pit straight even with the help of DRS, nor under braking at the only real passing opportunity into Turn 1. At the end of Lap 66 Verstappen crossed the line ahead of Raikkonen, a victorious end to Verstappen's first race weekend after being promoted to Red Bull. Further back, Vettel and Ricciardo fought for scraps, the German staying ahead to finish third.

How to polish car paint | Autoblog Details

Here's how to quickly and properly polish your car's paint to increase the depth and shine of your clear coat with a dual action polisher. Watch all our Autoblog Details videos for more quick car care tips from professional detailer Larry Kosilla. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Polishing paint properly is not only a skill, but it's what I consider an art especially on this 1964 Ferrari GTE. And like any art form, it takes years of practice to perfect. Today we're gonna discuss how to quickly and safely polish or paint to increase the depth and shine of your clear coat with dual action polishers. Coming up on this episode of Details. My name is Larry Kosilla and I'm a professional detailer. Together with Autoblog, we're creating [00:00:30] the ultimate collection of quick car care videos. This is Autoblog Details. Here are the items you'll need for this task. If your car has clear coat, and in most cases, any car manufactured after the mid 1980s, or repainted like this one here, will come standard with clear coat, and you'll need to use a machine. Polishing clear coat by hand is not recommended due to the hardness of the paint. [00:01:00] Polishing paint is typically done for two main purposes. First is to remove any remaining swirls left over from a previous compounding step, or to simply increase the gloss of the paint that has no scratches that lacks a deep rich shine like this one here. First, attach a foam polishing pad to a machine. In this case, I'm using a Meguiars foam yellow pad on a Rupes LHR 21ES polisher. Spread your polish of choice around the pad, covering all pores evenly by massaging the product in [00:01:30] by hand and of course, wearing gloves. Make sure to add a bit more in some areas that remain uncoated. Now that the pad is primed, add three small dots of polish and place the pad directly on the paint prior to engaging the machine. Speed settings will vary by machine and the type of pad used but a setting of three to four is a good place to start. Take note on small orbit polishing machines if the polishing pad is not rotating, little to no polishing work is being done to the paint. Adjustments to speed, pressure, [00:02:00] and machine angle may be needed. Apply light to medium pressure to the machine so that the foam pad compresses slightly. Arm speed is moderate to slow. But keep in mind, the slower your arm speed, the more work is being done to the paint.