Hamilton v Hakkinen in Mercedes Stars & Cars duels

Lewis Hamilton will take on fellow Formula One world champion Mika Hakkinen at the Mercedes Stars and Cars event, which takes place on December 12 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart.

The exciting duel leads a series of eight head-to-head battles after motorsport fans cast their ballots online to pick their favourite competitor for the eight seeded drivers: Hamilton, F1 team-mate Nico Rosberg, DTM champion Pascal Wehrlein and fellow DTM racers Christian Vietoris, Paul Di Resta, Daniel Juncadella, Gary Paffett, Robert Wickens.

The vote creates a series of exciting matchups, with Rosberg facing off against Mick Schumacher – the son of F1 legend Michael – while Wehrlein is pitted against former grand prix star Jean Alesi.

Here is the full line-up for the opening round of 16

Race 1: Lewis Hamilton - Mika Hakkinen

Race 2: Christian Vietoris - Maximilian Götz

Race 3: Paul Di Resta - David Coulthard

Race 4: Pascal Wehrlein - Jean Alesi

Race 5: Daniel Juncadella - Lucas Auer

Race 6: Gary Paffett - Bernd Schneider

Race 7: Robert Wickens - Bernd Mayländer

Race 8: Nico Rosberg - Mick Schumacher

The Stars & Cars competition consists of four rounds, with the field thinning out to just two for the final. Drivers will compete against each other in identical cars in every race, with the winner progressing to the next stage.

Each of the four rounds will be contested using a different class of vehicles: the Mercedes-AMG A45 4MATIC will be used in the round of 16; then the competitors will switch to the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S for the quarter-finals; semi-finalists will face off in the Mercedes-AMG GT S, while the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 will star in the final.

There will also be five special races, featuring current and historic racing cars that represent Mercedes-Benz’ motor racing heritage, as well as all the 2015 championship-winning cars, from the Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid to the Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM.

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