Abu Dhabi: James Calado of ART won the 2013 GP2 Series season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit to claim his second win of the season and clinch third place in the drivers’ championship.
Dani Clos of MP Motorsport came second, while newly crowned drivers’ champion Fabio Leimer was third.
“To finish with a win is great for the confidence going into the future,” said Calado, who now plans to leave the series. “Third place in the championship is really nice.
“I don’t know yet what are my plans for the next season, but we do have a number of options. Formula One is an option and there are other things we can consider as well. My manager is discussing our plans going forward so let’s see how it goes.”
Calado took control of Sunday’s race from the start and motored quickly past the front row of Johnny Cecotto Jr of team Arden International and Felipe Nasr of Carlin. Clos then took full advantage of a spin by Cecotto after being pushed by Nasr and sped past Leimer at turn two. but Calado held on and got the better of Clos by 0.7 seconds.
“We were looking for a result like this for a while now,” said Clos. “I came back into the GP2 five races ago and so it is good thing for the team. It was tough for them this year and I think we are doing a good job.”
Nasr’s teammate Jolyon Palmer also dropped out of the top 10 but, despite batting his way back ahead of Julian Leal, he was forced to call it quits with a problem with the rear of his car. With both Carlin cars out of contention, Sam Bird’s fourth place eventually proved enough for Russian Time to clinch the team title.
