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2015 Japanese Grand Prix is a little Mercedes, a lot of zen

Just one week on from the issues in Singapore Mercedes-AMG Petronas appeared to have solved its clamp problems and everything else. Daniil Kvyat at Infiniti Red Bull Racing took the two Free Practice scalps on Friday, but when it came time for qualifying the front of the grid looked really familiar: Mercedes' Nico Rosberg took his second pole position of the season, Lewis Hamilton next to him in second. Kvyat had a hand in that, too, the Russian getting into a big accident in Q3 when he put two wheels on the grass heading into the hairpin and veered into the tire wall so hard that he flipped. That ended qualifying before a number of drivers had a chance to improve their times, Hamilton among them. That's how Valtteri Bottas got in third for Willliams ahead of Sebastian Vettel fourth for Ferrari. Felipe Massa had the second Williams in fifth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo lined up sixth for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, a team we're going to have to enjoy watching for the rest of the season since it might not exist come 2016. Romain Grosjean gave Lotus some good news by getting into eighth, the team so strapped for cash that it couldn't get into its hospitality area, so it held press conferences outside and ate at Bernie Ecclestone's Paddock Club. Sergio Perez took ninth for Sahara Force India, and Kvyat slotted into tenth after not setting a time. The Russsian's race would begin from the pit lane once his mechanics rebuilt his car. It wouldn't be a Formula One start lately without someone at the front having clutch problems. This time it was pole man Rosberg, whose power unit got too hot and put him a few horsepower down on Hamilton through Turns 1 and 2. That's half of how Hamilton took the lead from the lights going out, and the Brit kept it throughout the race. Rosberg, however, said his race was lost when Hamilton pushed him wide through Turn 2, a move Hamilton defended. Rosberg finished almost 19 seconds behind his teammate, a gap that probably isn't fully explained by that opening incident. Hamilton's race was so uneventful that we almost never saw him on camera – that is, we saw him so much less than we usually see him when he's out in front and unpressured that Nikki Lauda said he'd ask Ecclestone why the cameras avoided him. The conspiracy theory holds that FOM was punishing Mercedes for not supplying Red Bull with engines next year.

Ferrari 488 GTB challenges that whole 'no replacement for displacement' thing [w/video]

You can't stand in the way of progress, even if you wanted to. And the current state of affairs in the automobile industry has everyone reaching for turbochargers. That includes even a company as famous for its wailing, high-revving supercars as Ferrari. The Prancing Horse marque has galloped in to the Geneva Motor Show this year on the back of the new 488 GTB. Replacing the 458 with its atmospheric 4.5-liter V8, the new 488 GTB packs a downsized turbo eight that may be smaller at 3.9 liters, but doesn't skimp on the power – now producing 661 horsepower and 560 pound-feet of torque to trump even the ultimate 458 Speciale. Compared to the new McLaren 675LT, the 488 packs almost as many horses but even more torque, and goes well beyond the Lamborghini Huracan by both measures. Even the new Audi R8 V10 Plus can't touch it. That's the kind of progress we can get behind, but there's more to the new 488 GTB than the turbocharged engine. It's also got revised electronics, updated bodywork, enhanced aerodynamics and a revised interior. Scope it out in our slideshow of live images from the floor of the Geneva Palexpo and in the video below. THE FERRARI 488 GTB – EXTREME POWER FOR UNIQUE DRIVING PLEASURE The innovative 8-cylinder berlinetta debuts at Geneva: new design, new engine and a plethora of patented solutions Geneva, 3 March 2015 – On its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari 488 GTB sets a new benchmark for the sports car sector. Forty years on from the launch of Ferrari's iconic first-ever mid-rear-engined V8 berlinetta, the 308 GTB, the Ferrari 488 GTB opens a new chapter in the history of cars with this particular architecture. Credit for this achievement must go to the Ferrari 488 GTB's revolutionary proprietary solutions which deliver a car at the top of its class in terms of power output (670 cv) with engine and response times of just 0.8 and 0.06 seconds respectively. Sophisticated dynamic vehicle controls make this performance completely controllable even on the limit by drivers of all abilities, resulting in the unique driving pleasure that only a Ferrari can deliver. Ferrari drew extensively on its experience in both Formula One and endurance racing, bringing to the road the technology that delivered victory in two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the title in the WEC (World Endurance Championship).

Race Recap: 2014 Spanish Grand Prix is boom and bust [spoilers]

The Spanish Grand Prix's 2.892-mile Circuit de Catalunya is considered a preview for the rest of the season, since it's a combination of long front straight and twisting middle sectors mimic sections from every other Formula One track to follow. After the long break following the flyaway races to open the season, teams and fans have also been looking forward to this race to see if anyone had a realistic hope of catching Mercedes AMG Petronas; Infiniti Red Bull Racing honcho Christian Horner boiled his team's outlook for the season down to the line, "We've got to [beat them in Spain] if we're going to make a championship of it."
If we take that as our starting point then the weekend began as a bust. Lewis Hamilton only just beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for pole, the Brit's final effort getting him 0.178 seconds clear of the German. Daniel Ricciardo, proving Red Bull is at least the best of the rest, took third but did so more than a second behind Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas of Williams lined up fourth, almost 1.5 second behind and Romain Grosjean delivered overdue good news for Lotus by taking fifth on the grid, more than 1.7 seconds behind pole. Kimi Räikkönen in sixth outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso in seventh, but he couldn't be happy about it because the Ferraris were nearly two seconds behind, and Jenson Button in eighth in the McLaren was more than two second behind. Felipe Massa put the second Williams in ninth, and Sebastian Vettel overcame a terrible start to the weekend to make it into Q3, then didn't set a time when his gearbox failed, then got dropped five places to 15th on the grid when the gearbox had to be changed.
When the lights went out, then came the boom...