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Mercedes-Petronas AMG W04 launched to little fanfare, lots of pressure [w/video]

No indoor cocktail hour for the launch of the W04, the newest chassis built by the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team. Instead, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton spent a morning in photo and video sessions at the track in Jerez, Spain then paused a moment to introduce the car. The team will want the W04 to demonstrate the World Championship credentials of the team personnel and one of the team drivers, instead of the mostly humble performances we've seen over the past three years.
The W04 has been fitted with a new five-element front wing, pushrod front and pull-rod rear suspension, a second-generation Coanda exhaust and an "aggressively packaged" rear end. A small vanity panel, à la Infiniti Red Bull's RB9, covers the stepped nose.
Team principal Ross Brawn has called it "a clear step forward in design and detail sophistication," but as much as we truly respect Brawn's abilities and achievements, we heard him say similar things about the updated W03 last year before almost every race weekend from about mid-season. We really hope he's right this time, and so does the team's newest driver, Lewis Hamilton. We'll do our best to ignore the parallels of the Mercedes F1 team having signed a sponsorship deal with Blackberry, another company trying to find its way back to the top and still struggling, and just point you to the video below of the W04 in action.

Mercedes raises the roof on new CLA Shooting Brake [UPDATE]

UPDATE: As we feared, the CLA Shooting Brake is not currently slated for US availability. The text below has been adjusted accordingly. Of all the variants in Mercedes' smallest line, only one doesn't have a liftgate, and that's the CLA-Class. But don't worry, the German automaker is out to fix that too with the reveal of the new CLA Shooting Brake you see here. Based on the same platform that underpins the CLA four-door coupe, the A-Class hatchback, B-Class minivan and GLA crossover, the new Shooting Brake applies a similar formula we've already seen on the bigger CLS Shooting Brake but in a much smaller form – which is to say, it's a wagon, but a shapely one. The revised roofline means more headroom in the back seat and significantly more cargo capacity than the four-door's trunk. Mercedes will offer the CLA with a variety of engine choices, including a 2.1-liter turbodiesel with either 136 or 177 horsepower, a 1.6-liter four with 122, 156 or 211 horsepower. That last model will even be available with 4Matic all-wheel drive for those not enamored by the idea of a front-drive Benz, but the top of the range, of course, is the CLA45 AMG Shooting Brake that carries the same 2.0-liter turbo four – all 360 horsepower of it – as the four-door CLA45 as well as the A45 and GLA45. Driving once again to all four wheels, Daimler says it'll reach 62 in 4.7 seconds (even quicker than the crossover) and top out at the usual 155 miles per hour. Of course those options only apply to markets where the new Shooting Brake will be offered. And unfortunately, Mercedes-Benz USA confirmed to Autoblog that (like the CLS wagon) the CLA Shooting Brake won't be making the transatlantic voyage to US showrooms (where the E-Class is the only low-slung Benz wagon on offer). That leaves the four-door CLA and the GLA crossover still holding down the pint-sized fort for Mercedes. THE NEW MERCEDES-BENZ CLA SHOOTING BRAKE: SPACE FOR SOMETHING NEW Stuttgart. Breathtakingly sporty proportions and a powerfully dynamic design idiom with sensuously shaped surfaces already made the CLA unmistakable in its four-door Coupe guise. It is now followed by a further design icon, the CLA Shooting Brake, with a unique look all of its own. The lower overall height and the elongated coupe-style roof contour line, the low greenhouse and the sweep of the high beltline are the key design features of its distinctive profile.

2015 Brazilian Grand Prix is the same as it ever was

At this point, we hope Nico Rosberg is planning to carry his current qualifying form into the 2016 season and back it up with the same kind of race-day cojones he showed winning the race in Mexico City two weeks ago. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver got it right enough again on Saturday afternoon to take his fifth consecutive pole position ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton by almost a tenth of a second. It's the same one-two from Brazil last year. The bad news for the rest of the field is that the winner in Brazil the last seven years has been one of the two drivers on the front row. Last year it was the Williams duo that lined up behind Mercedes, this year it's Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel plays the stalking horse, securing third in his Ferrari ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas actually qualified in fourth, but he had to serve a three-spot grid penalty for passing under red flags in Free Practice 2, so he started sixth. That promoted Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg up to fifth. Daniil Kvyat was the quickest representative from Infiniti Red Bull Racing, getting into seventh even with a Renault power unit that's weak on some of the key stretches at the Interlagos track. Felipe Massa had the second Williams in eighth, in front of the second Red Bull driven by Daniel Ricciardo in ninth. Toro Rosso hasn't confirmed its drivers for next year but Max Verstappen keeps making it hard to look elsewhere, taking 10th. Rosberg is working nearly the same trick he pulled last year: drive like a second driver for most of the year, drive like a world champion for the last quarter of a season. He pulled away at the start and covered Hamilton just enough on the run to the first corner to keep Hamilton on the outside. By the end of Turn 1 the German had the lead and didn't give it up for the rest of the race outside of pit stops. Without overwhelming pace to pass and unable to follow closely, Hamilton could do nothing except ask his team for a different strategy to go for the win. When Mercedes told him "No," trying to protect Rosberg's second place in the championship ahead of Vettel, that was the race. Just like last year, Rosberg and Hamilton finished one-two. Vettel, Raikkonen, Bottas, Hulkenberg, and Kvyat drove lonely races to finish in positions three through seven.