GP3: Ocon takes Abu Dhabi pole, points lead

Mercedes junior Esteban Ocon left it late to grab his third consecutive GP3 pole in Abu Dhabi, and with it four points to reclaim the championship lead from Luca Ghiotto.

Trident driver Ghiotto started qualifying for the season finale leading the championship by two points, and was looking strong for the majority of the session.

The Italian was top of the timesheets by almost half a second after his first run. But during a frenetic finale Arden International driver Kevin Ceccon knocked Ghiotto off top spot, before Ocon's ART Grand Prix teammate Marvin Kirchhofer demoted him further into third, by 0.083 seconds.

It seemed as though neither championship contender would pick up the crucial points for pole position, but Ocon had other ideas.

After completing three warm-up laps the Frenchman was able to overhaul Ceccon by just 0.016s as the session came to an end, with a time of 1m55.491s. Ghiotto crossed the line after Ocon but he could not improve and will line up fourth on the grid.

Koiranen GP's Jimmy Eriksson was briefly third in the early stages but fell down the order late on to end the session fifth.

Arden's Emil Bernstorff was three tenths off pole in sixth, ahead of Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco and Campos Racing driver Alex Palou in seventh and eighth respectively.

Originally on Autosport.com