Pierre Gasly takes the win in Abu Dhabi ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Artem Markelov. Giovinazzi ending fifth, the Frenchman takes a twelve-points championship lead.


 

Pierre Gasly started from pole position ahead of Sergey Sirotkin and Artem Markelov. Antonio Giovinazzi started in sixth. Gasly and Giovinazzi started with the softer tyre. Gasly took a good getaway and so did the ART. Before the DRS was enabled, the Prema driver managed to create a 1.3s gap to Sirotkin.

On lap 4, Nabil Jeffri has to stop his car. One lap later, Matsushita claimed the advantage over Sirotkin, leaving Gasly getting away with a five second gap. Evans was the first driver to pit on lap 6. Lynn passed Giovinazzi for sixth place.

On lap 7, Gasly, Sirotklin, Rowland, Markelov and Nato pitted. Giovinazzi pitted one lap later with King. Rowland and Delétraz had to retire on lap 8 and 9. Nato got a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Gasly continued his comeback by passing the last drivers who had not stopped yet while Cecotto passed Ghiotto for fourth.

Halfway through the race, Matsushita was leading from Lynn and Marciello. Gasly was the leader of those who had already stopped ahead of Markelov and Sirotkin. Matsushita was running with a furious pace, over one second faster than those in his strategy.

With six laps to go, Marciello was the first to stop but his pitstop was disturbed by a lose tyre from Ghiotto in his pitstop. Matsushita stopped one lap later like Lynn and Cecotto. The Japanese went out just behind Markelov who could not resist the Japanese’s pace with new soft tyres.

Pierre Gasly took his fourth win of the season ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Artem Markelov. Sirotkin, Giovinazzi, Nato, Cecotto, Lynn, Latifi and Marciello completed the top 10. Thanks to his win, Gasly took back championship lead with twelve points over Giovinazzi.