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Ferrari has auctioned off the first US-spec Ferrari F12berlinetta, with the proceedings going to the the American Red Cross in aid of the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22. It quickly strengthened and was upgraded to tropical storm six hours later. In the US, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states with New York City badly flooded on 29 October. Power was also cut around the city. The event took place at the inaugural 2012 Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Ferrari started bidding of the supercar at US$315,888 (S$386,173). The bidding ended at US$1.125 (S$1.375) million with the top bidder by the name of Larry Roth who hails from Long Island. Donors donated an additional US$345,000 bringing the total funds raised to almost US$1.5 (S$1.83) million. Larry will receive the delivery of Ferrari's most powerful road-going car in Q2 of 2013. Powered by a 6.3-litre V12 naturally-aspirated engine, the F12berlinetta sprints from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.1 seconds. The engine is mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. Photo Credit: autoblog.com

The Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 15 was an interesting race and one that Nico Rosberg won after taking part in 111 F1 races. And now that little jinx has been settled, we may see an increase in confidence in the German driver (He is half Finnish and half German) much like how Jenson Button winning his first race and then go on to winning a world championship. Of course, the win was in a way handed to him by the fact that his Mercedes Petronas F1 team mate Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button in the McLaren suffered similar misfortunes. Schumacher, who started off second suffered as team mechanics failed to properly tighten his car tyres at his first pitstop causing, no, forcing the on-form seven time world champion to retire very early on. Jenson Button who was behind the suddenly very competitive Mercedes F1 cars had also suffered from a tyre change bungle as the McLaren pitcrew struggled to change the rear wheel on Button's car. This allowed Rosberg to scoot ahead comfortably and he wasn't seriously challenged at all right to the finish line. The Shanghai grand prix also showed to us F1 fans that Ross Brawn, who runs the Mercedes Petronas team which was born out of the championship winning Brawn GP squad in 2010, is back in the business of winning. These new Mercedes F1 cars seem to be even better than the Red Bull Racing cars that reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel drives. This also marks the first F1 win for the modern Mercedes F1 team and the first win as a constructor since 1955. It also allowed us to watch a mega scrap between those placed 2nd to 8th position. Which is usually what viewers want. One other notable fact that I happened to notice is that Ferrari, which won the previous race over at Sepang suffers from a lack of pace. It must have been down to the weather (the rain) and the fact that Fernando Alonso is indeed an exceptional driver. RESULTS 1. Rosberg (Mercedes) 1h36:26.929 2. Button (McLaren-Mercedes) +20.626 3. Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) +26.012 4. Webber (Red Bull-Renault) +27.924 5. Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) +30.483 6. Grosjean (Lotus-Renault) +31.491 7. Senna (Williams-Renault) +34.597 8. Maldonado (Williams-Renault) +35.643 9. Alonso (Ferrari) +37.256 10. Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) +38.720 11. Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) +41.066 12. Di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) + 42.273 13. Massa (Ferrari) +42.700 14. Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault) +50.500 15. Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes) +51.200 16. Vergne (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +51.700 17. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1:03.100 18. Petrov (Caterham-Renault) +1 lap 19. Glock (Marussia-Cosworth) +1 lap 20. Pic (Marussia-Cosworth) +1 lap 21. De la Rosa (HRT-Cosworth) +1 lap 22. Karthikeyan (HRT-Cosworth) +2 laps 23. Kovalainen (Caterham-Renault) +3 laps DNF Schumacher (Mercedes) - Boo Hoo Hoo! I was rooting for the chap!

The Formula 1 circus show has begun for 2012 Melbourne Grand Prix recently. The race was entertaining as the cars were bunched up again with 17 laps to go due to the safety car coming out after a racing incident. So it was basically down to the wire. However, the Malaysian Grand Prix happens this coming weekend (the 25th of March 2012) over at Sepang and the carnival has started early for some. The newly minted Lotus F1 Team (Lotus bought out the Renault F1 team last year) have started the ball rolling displaying their latest challenger, the E20. It was displayed and driven in front of the Malaysian public at Proton's Power of 1 Event. Donuts and all. Driven by former F1 Champion Kimi Raikkonen and newbie Romain Grosjean, Raikkonen did quite well coming in 7th over at Melbourne while Grosjean did not finish. It wasn't too long ago that a powered by Renault car propelled Fernando Alonso to two world championships and it is a good platform for any car manufacturer to gain entry into F1. Of course we have to note that Renault is an automobile manufacturer in their own right and must have decided that they had to spend tons of money on their own in Formula 1. That is why they must have become enginge suppliers. It makes perfect sense money-wise and so we now have the Lotus F1 Team