Abu Dhabi: The final race of the GP2 series was abandoned on Sunday after a multiple car pile-up caused significant damage to the barrier on the first lap.

Front-row starters Alex Lynn of Driot-Arnaux Motorsport and Campos Racing’s Rio Haryanto did enough to hold their positions into the first turn followed by Racing Engineering teammates Jordan King and Alexander Rossi.

But behind them Trident’s Raffaele Marciello touched Driot-Arnaux Motorsport’s Pierre Gasly, causing him to spin. Norman Dato was unable to avoid Gasly and the pair collected Carlin’s Sean Geleal, Trident’s Daniel de Jong, MP Motorsport’s Nicholas Latifi and Russian Time’s Artem Markelov. Campos Racing’s Arthur Pic tried to avoid the collision but found Rapax’ Sergey Sirotkin instead.

With the collision causing significant damage and the barrier needing extensive repairs ahead of the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the decision was taken to abandon the race. No points were awarded.

ART Grand Prix’ Stoffel Vandoorne had already wrapped up the drivers’ championship with four races to spare in Russia last month, and last week his side confirmed the constructors’ championship in Bahrain.

All that had remained heading into this final event of the season was for the 23-year-old Belgian to break the record for most GP2 wins per season.

He confirmed that in Saturday’s penultimate race with his seventh victory of the season anyway, finishing ahead of Raffaele Marciello in second and Mitch Evans in third.

“It’s my seventh win. It’s a new record in GP2, no one has done this before,” said Vandoorne. “I’m just really pleased with the work we’ve done again today. It shows that we’ve dominated the season from beginning until the end.”

As champion, Vandoorne is now no longer eligible to compete in the format next season and will instead join McLaren’s F1 team as a reserve driver.

“This is my last weekend,” he added. “I’ve had two amazing seasons with ART Grand Prix. I am just thankful for the car they’ve given me during these two seasons. And I think, I’m just being relaxed about it and just enjoying every race to the fullest. It makes the result come easier maybe a little bit for us.”

Unfortunately Vandoorne, who started from eighth in the grid for the final race on Sunday, wasn’t able to extend his record in the final race due to the collision. But luckily he had got his business done early.