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A weird end to a weird F1 season | 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix recap

The 2016 Formula 1 season ended with a bang that came from a direction no one expected. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position and then got away clean to start the race. Teammate Nico Rosberg did the next best thing, lining up in second and following right behind Hamilton for most of the race. Other than Rosberg's wicked pass on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to retake second place on Lap 20, things stayed all quiet at the front. Come Lap 32 of the 55-lap race, however, observers began to wonder why Hamilton was driving so slow. The Brit, working every trick he could think of to win the Driver's World Championship instead of just the race, dogged it out front trying to push Rosberg back into the chasing mix of Red Bulls and Ferraris. Over the next 15 laps Hamilton's race engineer repeatedly radioed ideal lap times. Hamilton only occasionally hit the times until finally saying, "I suggest you let us race." When the one-stopping Sebastian Vettel blasted his Ferrari from sixth to third, nosing up to Rosberg's gearbox, Mercedes team honcho Paddy Lowe got on the radio to instruct Hamilton to go faster. Hamilton replied that if he wasn't going to win the championship he didn't care about winning the race. Hamilton repeatedly zoomed through the first sector to keep everyone behind, then clogged up the works through Sectors 2 and 3. The problem with his plan was that the Red Bulls in fourth and fifth couldn't get close enough to threaten the trio at the front; even if Vettel had got by Rosberg, Rosberg would still win the Championship with a third-place finish. As it happened, Rosberg finished second behind the disconsolate Hamilton. Vettel took third, followed by Red Bull drivers Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, then the second Ferrari piloted by Kimi Raikkonen in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg took seventh, beating Force India teammate Sergio Perez for the last time as an intra-team rivalry. Felipe Massa closed his F1 career with ninth place in a Williams chassis that he got to take home as a gift from the team. Fernando Alonso scored the final point for McLaren, a touch of sweet for the team after the bitterness of Jenson Button retiring on Lap 12 with suspension damage. Rosberg's second place earned him 385 points for the season, enough to take the World Driver's Championship from Hamilton by just five points. Some have put the title down to Rosberg's consistency, others to his car's reliability.

Pre-Race notes from the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours

Autoblog has come to the German countryside to watch the Nurburgring 24-Hour race, and just one day in, we have to say it's outstanding. Le Mans has been the highlight of our summer racing schedule for the past few years, the 'Ring 24-Hour event being the appetizer we always skipped. Earlier this year, however, while visiting Miami to check out the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S, we met Scott Preacher. He oversees digital marketing for both Cigarette and AMG during the week, then comes to Germany to compete in the VLN race series on the weekends, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Team Mathol. If Le Mans is the Oscars of endurance racing, the Nurburgring 24-Hour race is the Screen Actors Guild award – the one voted on by the actors, for the actors. In this case it's the race by the teams and fans, for the teams and fans, even though the increasing manufacturer presence has altered the team equation. We were told that it wasn't so long ago that true privateers could win the overall, but that's not really the case anymore. Front-running teams have heavy factory involvement – Audi Sport Team Phoenix, for instance, which finished in first and third last year, has its own 'Ring race center and is running the 2016 R8; Aston Martin is represented by Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Test Center, and Bentley has a Bentley Motors team and uses HPT to run another team. The fan component hasn't changed, though, and you can't talk about the race for more than 60 seconds before someone brings up the battalions of spectators. Every driver we spoke to cited them as the most incredible part of this race after the track itself. It feels to us like a giant German Sebring, with thousands of people camped out in the ginormous, forested infield, many of whom have been here since Monday erecting their ornate camping compounds. There will be parties everywhere Saturday night, and so much bratwurst on the grill that the drivers can smell it when as they're blasting full speed through Wehrseifen. Even when we drove a Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe on a lap before the race, the fans waved like it was a competition. Scott Preacher's Australian co-driver Robert Thompson said, "You come around a corner and it's like you're driving full speed through the middle of a carnival." The race field itself could also be called a carnival, with an officially invited field of more than 170 cars. Even on a track that's 24.4-km long, that's like racing on the 405 at midday.

Mercedes-Maybach Pullman stretches its way to Geneva

Mercedes-Benz is known the world over for producing luxury automobiles, but even among Benzes there's a hierarchy. The S-Class sits at the top of the Mercedes range, the Maybach at the top of the S-Class, and what you see here sits at the top of the Maybach line. It's the new Pullman limousine, and it arrives on the 50th anniversary of the original. Stretching a massive 21.3 feet, the new Mercedes-Maybach Pullman is even longer than the previous Maybach 62 by a full foot, and a good 3.5 feet longer than the standard-wheelbase Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, or two feet longer than the G63 AMG 6x6. In other terms, it's over a foot longer than the Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB, and the better part of a yard longer than even the Cadillac Escalade ESV. Heck, you could just about fit Benz's other flagship, the Mercedes-AMG GT, inside the new Pullman's 14.5-foot wheelbase. As if that's not enough, it also stands 3.9 inches higher than a standard S-Class to the benefit of its imposing presence and interior space. Should you be so fortunate as to be graced with an invitation to step inside, you'd find an interior entirely clad in leather with four seats: two recliners and two fold-down seats facing backwards. Those principal rear seats can recline between 19 and 43.5 degrees and offer an extensive array of individual adjustments to cater just-so to the occupants' individual preferences. Ingress and egress are enabled by larger rear doors that open in front of – instead of next to – those rear seats to enhance the privacy of the traveling dignitaries, who will be able to monitor the state of affairs through the analog thermometer, speedometer and clock mounted in the roof liner. They'll also enjoy privacy thanks to the electrically operated glass partition wall with an 18.5-inch monitor mounted in front of it and a choice of Burmester sound systems. Long the favorite of heads of state and captains of industry, the new Pullman will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show now just weeks away. We don't doubt that Mercedes will offer its customers a choice of engine options (as long as they're capable of motivating the new Pullman's assuredly substantial heft), but most suitable to the task will of course be the 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 with its 523 horsepower and 612 pound-feet of torque.