It’s hammer time! Hamilton's 2013 Merc F1 auctioned for £15m, smashing estimate

The car in which Lewis Hamilton bagged the first of 82 F1 race wins for Mercedes (so far) has sold at auction for £15 million ($18.8m), almost twice what RM Sotheby's thought it would fetch. Yowzers.

The W04-04 chassis seen here was raced by Lewis in 14 of the 19 grands prix that formed the 2013 season, including that maiden Silver Arrows victory from pole position at the Hungarian GP.

But far from being the turning point in a title fight, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel hit back by winning the next nine races in a row, a record that stood for a decade until a certain Dutchman went one better earlier this year…

Anyway, this car also brought Hamilton three of his four other podiums that year, in China, Malaysia and Belgium. He eventually finished fourth in the championship.

You'll note it's not powered by the 1.6-litre V6 hybrid with which Mercedes claimed a monopoly on winning for several years. Nope, this is from the last generation of 2.4-litre V8s when F1 last truly satisfied our eardrums at 18,000rpm. Ahh.

The auction took place at the Wynn's Awakening Theatre on Saturday in the build-up to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which defied all expectation and logic by actually being quite exciting.

Other lots that went under the hammer at the weekend included a Countach formerly owned by Ralph Lauren ($830k), one of Michael Schumacher’s old race suits ($102k), a Lexus LFA Nurburgring Package ($1.875m) and a Merc CLK GTR Roadster ($10.235m).