F1 star's last race winning car goes up for auction in iconic livery

David Coulthard's final F1 race winning McLaren has gone up for auction in Paris.

Coulthard raced at McLaren from 1996 until 2004, partnering two-time champion Mika Hakkinen for six years at the team, where 'the Flying Finn' won back-to-back world titles in 1998 and 1999.

The Scot won 13 races across his F1 career, 12 of which were achieved at McLaren and his final moment on the top step of the podium was at the season opening 2003 Australian Grand Prix.

Despite a P11 qualifying start, Coulthard benefitted from pre-race rain and made a lap two change for dry tyres to move up the order. Mistakes from Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya allowed the Scot to jump into the lead and he won the race by almost nine seconds.

Now, the McLaren MP4-17, upgraded to a MP4-17D specification for 2003, has gone up for auction in Paris.

While Coulthard won his final race in the machinery, the car up for auction is the MP4-17A-06 specification, sporting the number 4 of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, and the iconic silver 'West' livery.

How much does the MP4-17A fetch?

According to RM Sotheby's the MP4-17A is worth between €1million - €1.4million (between £872,000 and £1.2million).

Raikkonen's livery has been fitted with a 3.0-litre Mercedes-Benz FO110-series V-10 engine that requires a rebuild prior to use.

The 2002 McLaren was an evolution of the MP4-16, and the MP4-17 was recalled again for the following season in 2003, due to the troubling test programme MP4-18.

McLaren's MP4-17 was designed by a team of illustrious F1 names, which included then technical director Adrian Newey, chief engineer Paddy Lowe and designer of Spygate fame Mike Coughlan.

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