Abu Dhabi: ART Grand Prix’s Marvin Kirchhofer won the penultimate race of the GP3 series at Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday ahead of Arden International’s Emil Bernstorff and Korainen GP’s Jimmy Eriksson.
Kirchhofer’s teammate Estaban Ocon still leads the drivers’ championship by six points heading into Sunday’s finale however, despite finishing fourth.
Ocon had started from pole but was run wide by fellow frontrunner Arden International’s Kevin Ceccon at the first corner. The Frenchman rejoined the track ahead of Ceccon moments later prompting the stewards to issue a five-second time penalty.
Luckily for Ocon his main title rival Luca Ghiotto also started poorly falling from fourth to sixth after allowing Emil Bernstorff and Jimmy Eriksson to pass early.
Ocon was out in front throughout the race and redoubled his efforts when told of his time penalty in order to stay ahead.
But Ceccon retired through mechanical failure half way through and Ocon then struggled to pull far enough of Kirchhofer, Bernstorff and Korainen, to finish fourth.
Most importantly Ocon had still done enough to finish in front of Ghiotto, who came fifth, giving him the slightest of advantages heading into Sunday’s final race of the series.
“I don’t really understand what happened,” said Kirchhofer of his fifth win of the season. “From the start I was P3 and I thought that was good as it was another podium. But then Ceccon had a technical issue which promoted me to P2. I was quite pleased with that too.
“Then I got the message then Estaban got a five second penalty for leaving the track at the start when he was side by side with Ceccon. At that moment, I knew I could get another win.”
The grid positions for Sunday’s final race are determined by Saturday’s penultimate race results. But the first eight finishers go out in reverse order meaning whoever finished first will start from eighth and whoever finished eighth will go out first and so on. Therefore, Ghiotto actually has advantage over Ocon in the final race grid, despite finishing behind Ocon in the first race. Fourth-placed Ocon will go out in fifth, while fifth-placed Ghiotto starts from fourth.
Elsewhere, the penultimate race of the GP2 season was held after the time of print here on Saturday. Driot-Arnaux Motorsports Pierre Gasly had earlier taken pole position in qualifying for that race ahead of ART Grand Prix’ Stoffel Vandoorne and Russian Time’s Mitch Evans. Vandoorne has already wrapped up the drivers’ championship but is hoping to break the record for most GP2 wins. He currently equals that record on ten with current Lotus F1 driver Pastor Maldonado.
