DAMS’ Jake Hughes has finished an up-and-down year in GP3 in style by winning the final sprint race of the year in Abu Dhabi.
The British driver started alongside Campos Racing’s Konstantin Tereschenko on the front row of the grid and capitalised after a manic opening corner of the race. A foursome of drivers including Tereschenko and his teammate Steijn Schothorst went off track as Hughes eventually emerged in the lead.
Hughes went on to comfortably win the 14-lap race by 2.8s ahead of Arden International’s Jack Aitken. Aitken also benefitted from the early chaos, moving up to final position of second place, claiming his fourth successive podium and sixth in the last seven races, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Nirei Fukuzumi.
Arden’s Jake Dennis missed out on a third straight podium in fourth place, finishing ahead of the Campos trio of Alex Palou, Konstantin Tereschenko and Steijn Schothorst. The former two drivers went over the line in a photo finish, both finishing 8.7 seconds behind Hughes, but Palou had the advantage.
DAMS’ Kevin Joerg fought off ART’s Charles Leclerc to take the final point on offer. Leclerc, who had become champion in the feature race, fought from 17th on the grid with a series of superb overtakes and fought hard with Joerg, with his rear sliding, to enjoy what should be his final race in the series.
Trident’s Guiliano Alesi finished in the top ten of a race for the second time in 2016 ahead of ART’s Nyck de Vries, who was embroiled for a large part of the middle of the race in a battle with Trident’s Antonio Fuoco.
Fuoco finished in 12th but was given a five-second time penalty for causing a collision and finished the race under investigation for going off track and potentially gaining an advantage. The extra seconds added to the Italian’s race time pushed him down to 17th in the classification.
This promoted Koiranen GP’s Matt Parry up to 12th ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Akash Nandy and Arjun Maini. DAMS’ Santino Ferrucci finished 15th after an early pit stop under safety car conditions because of a puncture, with Koiranen’s Matevos Isaakyan 16th ahead of Fuoco.
Trident’s Sandy Stuvik and Artur Janosz joined Jenzer’s Alessio Lorandi, who pitted after being shown the black and orange flag by the marshals, as the final classified drivers.
There were just two retirements from the race. ART’s Alex Albon and Arden’s Tatiana Calderon collided on the first straight of the circuit on the opening lap, bringing out the safety car which remained on track for around one and a half laps. It is the first time in the season that both of the two drivers have failed to finish both races in a weekend.
The result means that Leclerc finishes the season on 202 points, 25 ahead of Albon and 45 ahead of Fuoco. ART finish the season as Teams’ Champions on a record total of 588 points.
