Abu Dhabi-
Nyck De Vries claimed his second victory of the season ahead of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken after incidents involving Albon and Leclerc. By retiring, Albon offered the title to Charles Leclerc, who also retired.
Alexander Albon started from pole position ahead of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken. Charles Leclerc, the only driver who could be titled at the end of the race, started P5. Jake Hughes started from the pitlane.
Dennis suffered from a very bad start and lost two places at the first corner. Leclerc took a prudent start, until he got passed by Santino Ferrucci. On lap 2, Matevos Isaakyan went off the road and hit a board. One lap later, Artur Janosz collided with teammate Giuliano Alesi.
After five difficult laps, Leclerc closed the gap to Ferrucci. At the same moment, Tatiana Calderon spun, following a contact with Alessio Lorandi. The safetycar was deployed to retrieve the car.
At the restart, Aitken stayed side by side with Albon and managed to overtake him. Two laps later, Albon passed Aitken again but as the Arden driver fought back, Albon hit a kerb and had an airborne moment, forcing him to retire and offering Charles Leclerc the GP3 title.
A few laps later, Leclerc, who tried to pass Ferrucci for the podium, punctured his tyre against Ferrucci’s front wing. The Monegasque went straight into the wall and had to retire. Ferrucci then got a ten second penalty for another incident with Aitken in the last stages of the race.
Nyck De Vries, who stayed safe from those incidents claimed victory in the first race at Abu Dhabi ahead of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken. Jörg, Fukuzumi, Schothorst, Hughes, Terreschenko, Ferrucci and Palou completed the top 10. With the gap still at 25 points, Charles Leclerc became the 2016 GP3 Series champion.
