Stanaway 12th as Stoneman takes another GP3 win

Autosport

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 team-mates Emil Bernstorff and Alex Lynn ran wide at Turn 1 after the start.

New champion Lynn looked feisty 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:

PosDriverTeamGap
1Dean StonemanKoiranen GP29m10.173s
2Marvin KirchhoferART Grand Prix0.800s
3Dino ZamparelliART Grand Prix5.423s
4Emil BernstorffCarlin6.808s
5Alex LynnCarlin9.441s
6Alex FontanaART Grand Prix10.464s
7Patric NiederhauserArden International12.174s
8Nick YellolyStatus Grand Prix13.296s
9Kevin CecconJenzer Motorsport15.414s
10Jimmy ErikssonKoiranen GP16.173s
11Santiago UrrutiaKoiranen GP22.559s
12Richie StanawayStatus Grand Prix23.097s
13Jann MardenboroughArden International23.677s
14Pal VarhaugJenzer Motorsport24.419s
15Robert VisoiuArden International25.203s
16Alfonso CelisStatus Grand Prix27.534s
17Nelson MasonHilmer Motorsport31.020s
18Riccardo AgostiniHilmer Motorsport33.738s
19Ryan CullenTrident34.463s
20Kang LingTrident39.273s
Matheo TuscherJenzer MotorsportRetirement
Luis Jorge Sa SilvaCarlinRetirement
Patrick KujalaTridentRetirement

Stanaway 12th as Stoneman takes another GP3 win

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