2006 Ferrari 430 2dr Convertible Spider on 2040-cars

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Race Recap: 2015 US Grand Prix was wet, wild, and historic

Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico this weekend, and made her presence known throughout the South. For two of the three days of the grand prix weekend it rained non-stop in Austin, so badly on Saturday that qualifying had to be postponed until Sunday morning, and then it only stayed dry enough to conduct the first two sessions. At the end of a tricky, slippery Q2 Nico Rosberg had put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on the front row, one tenth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. The German had done the best he could to keep his hair-thin chances of a World Championship fight alive. Daniel Ricciardo lined his Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis in third ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat, both drivers having moved up a place because Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel took a ten-spot grid penalty for using a fifth engine and dropped to 13th. Continuing the two-up theme, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg were fifth and sixth for Force India. After that came variety: Felipe Massa in seventh for Williams, Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso in eighth, Fernando Alonso looking good in the rain for McLaren in ninth, and Romain Grosjean for Lotus in tenth. When the lights went out, Turn 1 set the tone. Pole position is on the outside line at Circuit of the Americas, and Hamilton had got himself far enough under Rosberg by the time the two got up the hill that Rosberg had to stick to the outside through the corner. At the corner exit Hamilton used the entire track, pushing Rosberg wide, their cars touching. As Rosberg left the track and dropped back to fourth, Hamilton radioed to the team to say the contact was unintentional. The two Mercedes' and two Red Bulls animated the front. Rosberg passed Ricciardo at the end of a Virtual Safety Car period employed to let the marshals clean the debris at Turn 1. Kvyat started chasing down Hamilton until the Russian ran wide and let Rosberg and Ricciardo through, then Rosberg ran wide on the next lap to let Ricciardo through. On Lap 15, Ricciardo passed Hamilton through the esses to take the lead. After the first round of pit stops the Aussie still had the lead, followed by Rosberg, Kvyat, Hamilton, and Vettel. Then Rosberg got around to take the lead and Vettel closed in on Hamilton as the Brit duked it out with the Russian. Rosberg showed excellent speed, building up a nine-second gap on Ricciardo, but a Safety Car period erased that when Marcus Ericsson had to park his dead Sauber on the inside of the track after Turn 10.

Watch the Ferrari LaFerrari get put through its paces by Top Gear and Evo

Do you know what today is? Well, besides being the anniversary of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase (thanks France!), Consumer Protection Day in Thailand and Michael Waltrip's birthday, April 30 marks the expiration of the first of two embargoes on the Ferrari LaFerrari.
That means you're probably going to see quite a bit on Ferrari's hypercar in the coming days. One of the first things we've stumbled across is this video from our friends at Top Gear. Now, this isn't Jeremy, James and Richard playing with the ultra-powerful hybrid (although it's probably only a matter of time before the LaFerrari arrives at Dunsfold), it's the TG magazine crew. It's best to think of the Top Gear video as an appetizer, though.
The main course comes from Evo, which has a far lengthier and more detailed spot, running a full 10 minutes of fun. Dickie Meaden samples the 900-plus-horsepower monster on both the Italian roads and the Fiorano test track. We won't spoil the outcome, so be sure to take a look below for both videos.

$3M Ferrari FXX K already sold out [w/videos]

When Ferrari took the wraps off its new FXX K track machine in Abu Dhabi last week, it conspicuously left out some key details. Sure, the Prancing Horse marque told us how much power it produced, and what it had done to the aero package to make it hug the track even closer than the road-going LaFerrari on which it's based – but it didn't tell us just how fast it will go, or how much it will cost. The latest reports, however, seek to fill in those blanks. According to Ferrari marketing chief Nicola Boari in speaking to Top Gear, the FXX K will lap the company's Fiorano test track in 1 minute 14 seconds. That would make it five seconds faster than the LaFerrari, a solid second ahead of the 599XX Evoluzione and two seconds faster than the original FXX. However it seems to fall short of the eight- to nine-second gap those previous XX derivatives opened up over the road-going models on which they in turn were based. So it seems, for the time being at least, that the 1:11.9 lap time recorded by the 333 SP – an open-cockpit sports prototype from the late 1990s – will remain for now the fastest car this side of an F1 racer ever to lap the circuit. The outright record stands at under 56 seconds and belongs to Michael Schumacher in the ten-cylinder F2004 he drove to his seventh and final world championship. As for the FXX K's production, Top Gear reports that Ferrari will build fewer than 40 of them, and that they've all been spoken for – at a price of ˆ2.5 million (more than $3M) apiece. If you're not one of those forty fortunate souls to have put down their deposit, your best chance to see this rare beast in its natural habitat (at least until one of the XX track days hits a race track near you) are the live images above and the handful of videos below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.