GP3: Stoneman swoops to Abu Dhabi success

Dean Stoneman continued his superb recent form to win the main race of the GP3 Series season finale in Abu Dhabi.

The Englishman got the jump on poleman Marvin Kirchhofer away from the lights, and led the German from start to finish to take his second win since switching to the Koiranen GP team.

An early safety car was caused by a tangle at Turn 11 on the opening lap, Patrick Kujala punting Matheo Tuscher into a spin and then getting collected by Luis Sa Silva. Stoneman bolted incredibly early at the restart, almost catching the safety car but giving himself a nice advantage over Kirchhofer.

The ART Grand Prix driver got the gap briefly down to within a second on the 12th lap of 14, but ran too deep into the Turn 8 chicane the following time around and dropped back.

Dino Zamparelli made it two ART drivers on the podium, the Italo-Bristolian benefiting when Carlin teammates Emil Bernstorff and Alex Lynn ran wide at Turn 1 after the start. New champion Lynn looked aggressive in trying to get past Bernstorff on the opening lap, but was forced to settle for fifth.

Alex Fontana, Patric Niederhauser and Nick Yelloly were next up, with Yelloly thereby earning pole for Sunday's reversed-grid race.

Jimmy Eriksson dropped ground on the opening lap, dropping out of the top 10 behind Kevin Ceccon and Santiago Urrutia.

The Swede provided the only post-lap-one points-paying overtaking manoeuvre of the whole race when he passed Urrutia on the ninth lap for 10th place, and nearly caught Ceccon for ninth by the finish.

RESULTS - 14 LAPS: