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Race Recap: 2016 European GP was a cakewalk for Rosberg

Formula 1 teams had no setup data or tire information for the six-kilometer Baku City Circuit hosting the European Grand Prix, and that's the reason for much of the weekend's excitement. Nico Rosberg snatched pole position after Mercedes-AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton hit the wall during qualifying. When the lights went out, Rosberg put in a clinical drive way out front to score his second career grand slam: pole position, leading every lap, fastest lap, and victory. Sebastian Vettel put in a similarly lonely drive in his Ferrari to second. The German had little to do on track other than get around his teammate on Lap 28, and that came courtesy of team orders. Sergio Perez started from second on the grid, but a gearbox change after clouting the wall during Free Practice dropped him to seventh. The Mexican cut his way through the field after his sole pit stop on Lap 17 of the 51-lap race, passing Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for third on the final lap. It's Perez's second podium in three races after finishing third in Monaco. Force India has five podium finishes in its eight-year history, and Perez's name is on four of them. Raikkonen followed in fourth. Stewards hit the Finn with a five-second penalty for crossing the pit-entry line during the race, so even if Perez hadn't passed him on track, Raikkonen would have been classified fourth. Hamilton's up-and-down weekend ended with a burst of radio messages and a whimper. He climbed from tenth on the grid to fifth in the race, then his energy recovery system began harvesting in the wrong places. The snafu cost Hamilton two seconds per lap compared to the leaders. The trouble came from a switch turned to the incorrect position, but the FIA ban on driver assistance meant Hamilton's engineer couldn't tell the driver how to fix the problem. At one point when Hamilton said he was going to reset the whole car, his engineer replied, "Um, we don't advise that, Lewis." Hamilton finally found the proper setting on Lap 43, but turned the engine down again when he realized he couldn't catch the leaders. Mercedes said that Rosberg had the same issue, but Rosberg fixed it on his own. Valtteri Bottas got his Williams across the line four seconds behind Hamilton. Red Bull teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen couldn't get their tires to work, forcing both racers to pit twice before finishing seventh and eighth.

Daimler rebuffs Geely offer to buy stake

HONG KONG/BEIJING - Daimler AG has turned down an offer from China's Geely to take a stake of up to 5 percent via a discounted share placement, as the German automaker has long been reluctant to see existing shareholdings diluted, sources with knowledge of the talks said. A stake of that size would be worth $4.5 billion at current market prices. Although Daimler declined the offer, it told Geely it was welcome to buy shares in the open market, the sources added. Carmakers in China have embarked on a flurry of dealmaking, as they scramble to boost production of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles ahead of tough new quotas to be imposed by Beijing, which wants to reduce urban smog and lower the country's reliance on oil. People with knowledge of Geely's thinking said the company was keen to access Daimler's electric car battery technology and wanted to establish an electric car joint venture in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. Geely, which also owns Swedish car maker Volvo, is still hopeful it can secure a deal in some form over the coming weeks, they added. The two automakers met in Beijing in recent weeks at Geely's behest. There, the Chinese firm, formally known as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, offered to take a stake of between 3 percent and 5 percent if Daimler would issue new shares at a discount, the sources said. It was not immediately clear what kind of discount for the shares Geely had in mind or whether Geely was interested in buying the shares on the open market. A spokesman for Geely declined to comment. A spokesman for Daimler said the company was "very happy with our shareholder structure at present", but added that it would welcome new investors with a long-term interest in the company. Shares in Daimler were up 1 percent in early Wednesday trade, in line with the broader market.DAIMLER ALREADY TIED TO BAIC, BYD Geely, which has a market value of some $32 billion, is the leading domestic brand in China with a 5 percent market share, according to an analysis by Nomura Securities. A stake of 5 percent would establish it as Daimler's third-largest shareholder behind the Kuwait Investment Authority and BlackRock, who hold 6.8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to Reuters data.

2015 Malaysian F1 GP springs hot, humid surprises [spoilers]

In the two weeks since Australia both Mercedes and Ferrari spoke of the improved performance from their respective cars. In Malaysia, Ferrari showed it. Lewis Hamilton still put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position, but Sebastian Vettel got within two whiskers of the Brit, lining up second just 0.074 behind. Afterward, Vettel said Ferrari could win the race if everything went well. But in qualifying we didn't know how much of Ferrari's performance was truly down to the car and how much was down to the wet weather that struck near the beginning of Q2. The rain didn't hamper Nico Rosberg's run – the German said "I just didn't drive good enough" – and he took third spot in the second Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Showing what the Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis can do when the power unit is working properly, teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat grabbed fourth and fifth. Whippersnapper Max Verstappen, in his second race, qualified in sixth with an excellent drive through the rain; just 0.030 behind Kvyat, he said he could have got fifth if he hadn't had a running problem with his brakes. Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley said he wouldn't complain about Mercedes' advantage, but Felipe Massa has spent the whole season so far banging the alarm about Ferrari's pace. He says Williams has lost its straight-line advantage, part of the reason the first Grove car is back in seventh, while Valtteri Bottas is in eighth. Between them was Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, but he got dropped two positions for a pit-lane infraction in Q2, so he'll be tenth. Ahead of him is Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber, who would lead the charge to turn in another surprise for the Swiss team. But the real surprise came from the Scuderia Ferrari, who, on a bright, sunny day proved that they don't need to add water for race-winning pace. While Hamilton got made usual awesome start at the lights, Vettel channeled that other famous German Ferrari driver and immediately cut across the track to intimidate Rosberg, maintaining his second place position into the first turn. Arguably the race-winning move came three laps later at that same turn, when Ericsson plunged in too fast and swapped ends, beaching the rear of his Sauber in the gravel trap. The safety car came out when the recovery truck emerged to retrieve the Sauber, and nearly all of the front-runners took to the pits to swap out of the medium tires. Vettel, however, didn't.