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2015 Russian Grand Prix was full of crashes and DNFs

Mercedes-AMG Petronas non-executive chairman Niki Lauda said of Lewis Hamilton's race-day domination this year, "The guy is driving like a god." Qualifying is another story, though – teammate Nico Rosberg taking pole proved that sometimes deities have to settle for second on the grid. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas surprised himself and his team with third place, half a second behind Hamilton but 0.05 sec ahead of the first Ferrari driven by Sebastian Vettel, while a mistake on Kimi Raikkonen's final flying lap left him in fifth, 0.4 sec behind Vettel. The Sahara Force India team had a good showing, with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying sixth just ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in seventh. It's the first time they've had both drivers in the top ten on the grid since the 2014 British Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean is leaving the stormy waters of Lotus at the end of the year for the unknown waters of Haas F1, but he made the shoestring operation look really good before Renault takes over by taking eighth place on the grid. Max Verstappen qualified well again with ninth in the Toro Rosso, ahead of the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniel Ricciardo in tenth. Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat lined up eleventh for his home grand prix, certainly a disappointment after locking up fifth place on the grid last year in a Toro Rosso. When Pirelli brought soft and supersoft compounds to Sochi, the company said it hoped this year's race would be better than last year's. We're sure this first-lap mishap isn't what they meant. Rosberg and Hamilton dragged it down to Turn 1, with Rosberg getting the inside line. Hamilton had to go wide at Turn 2 as Rosberg fought to hold position, but they left a mess in their wake: Hulkenberg spun going into Turn 2 and stopped in the middle of the track, and Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber – who'd started 16th – collided with him. Both cars were out of the race immediately, and the Safety Car came in. The Safety Car returned to the pits on Lap 3 Rosberg led the field, but just two laps later the German complained of a sticking throttle pedal. Two laps later he had to retire, unable to drive the car properly. That put Hamilton at the front, and we've seen that race a bunch of times before. He built a double-digit lead and never lost it.

This computer-generated Ferrari 250 GTO carved from marble rocks

The Ferrari 250 GTO ranks as perhaps the most valuable production car ever made. In just the past two years, units of the ultimate '60s sports car have sold for $32 million, $35 million and maybe as high as $52 million. With just 39 of them ever assembled, these Ferrari owners are among a rarefied class of an already top-tier class of car collectors. So once you collect the ultimate car, then what do you do? How about buy a scale model of it hewn from a single block of Arabescato marble by stone specialist Lapicida?
Interestingly, no sculptor developed a leathery callouses on his or her hands over the hundreds of man hours surely necessary to create this work of art, nor were dozens of hand tools worn to the nub in the pursuit of this homage to Italian performance. To create the 1:3.6 replica of a 1962/1963 GTO, Lapicida simply laser-scanned an actual GTO and fine-tuned the resulting data in 3D modeling software. Then, the file was sent to a computer-controlled, five-axis mill to shape the marble, which was selected because the veining gave the illusion of speed. Finally, it was hand-finished to make sure the details were as crisp as possible. The completed model measures 47.2-inches long, 18.1-inches wide and 13.4-inches tall and retails for a tidy £30,000 - over $49,000 USD.
Impressive though it may be, it seems hard to imagine spending that sort of money on a car that you can't sit in or drive down the road. Then again, if you can afford to own a real 250 GTO, it's barely pocket change. Lapicida also takes commissions, so if you want a marble model of your car, they're happy to do it. Then again, if you just need your foyer retiled or your personal chef's is demanding an upgraded kitchen, they'll do that, too. Scroll down to get the full details on the model.

FIA approves new F1 elimination qualifying rules

The FIA has confirmed the new regulations for Formula 1's elimination qualifying, after the rules cleared the final approval for introduction on Thursday. As Motorsport.com revealed, the F1 Commission unanimously approved changes to the sport's Sporting Regulations that will result in a tweak to the qualifying format from the season opening race in Australia. It came despite concerns that Ferrari could opt to block the change, amid its skepticism about the benefits of moving away from the previous qualifying format that had proved popular. With the changes approved, the new rules have now been declared official in changes to Article 33 of F1's Sporting Regulations. The new rules are: a) From 14.00 to 14.16 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s, 11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted. b) From 14.24 to 14.39 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. Lap times achieved by the eight remaining cars will then be deleted. c) From 14.46 to 15.00 (Q3) the eight remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.