Abu Dhabi: Stefano Coletti, from Monaco, delivered an assured and determined drive on Sunday to win an incident-filled second GP2 Series race for the Racing Engineering team at the 2014 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Swiss driver Patric Niederhauser made a decisive start to claim the initiative and then seized a well-judged victory for the Arden International team in the second GP3 Series race.

Later, Coletti’s win enabled him to bid a positive farewell to the series in his final race as he came home 3.7 seconds ahead of second-placed Brazilian Felipe Nasr of Carlin.

Frenchman Arthur Pic of the Campos team finished third.

For Nasr, it was a ‘bitter-sweet’ end to the season in his final race with Carlin before he moves to join the Sauber team in Formula One next year.

He was hoping to score enough points to take second place in the championship ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne of the ART Grand Prix team, but the Belgian driver, who won Saturday’s race, finished sixth and also recorded the fastest lap of the race.

That meant he totalled 227 points, three more than Nasr’s 224.

Vandoorne is part of the McLaren Formula One team’s junior programme.

Series champion Briton Jolyon Palmer, who had confirmed he was the title winner at the previous round, spun off in the opening lap and failed to add to his total of 276 points.

There was a ferocious battle for places throughout the field and notably for fourth position and fifth.

Monegasque driver Stephane Richelmi of the DAMS team finally secured fourth ahead of New Zealander Mitch Evans of the RT Russian Time team and

Vandoorne.

Venezuela’s Johnny Cecotto was seventh for Trident.

“I think this is my last race in GP2,” said Coletti. “I wanted to end in a positive way and today my car was perfect. The team did a great job.”

In the earlier GP3 race, Niederhauser started alongside pole-sitting Nick Yelloly of the Status Grand Prix team on the front row of the reversed grid at the Yas Marina Circuit.

He made a near-perfect departure, resisting the Briton’s attack to control the 14-lap race, the last of the season, as leader.

SAFETY CAR INTERRUPTION

After an early safety car interruption, following a collision involving Brazilian Luis Sa Silva of Carlin and luckless Briton Ryan Cullen in a Trident, Niederhauser pulled clear to win with some ease by 4.920 seconds ahead of Yelloly.

It was his third win of the season.

Series champion Alex Lynn, of Carlin, finished third after starting fourth.

Cullen was left stranded and forced to retire.

Swiss driver Alex Fontana, who was third on the grid, fell to seventh at the start and eventually finished 16th.

After the early skirmishes, which also saw series runner-up Briton Dean Stoneman of the Koiranen GP forced to retire after being hit by Fontana’s car, the race was completed without any further great incident.

Stoneman had won Saturday’s race and, with German driver Marvin Kirchhofer of ART Grand Prix finishing 12th and failing to score after starting from the pit-lane, he retained second place in the championship.

Lynn won the title with a final tally of 205 points ahead of Stoneman on 163 and Kirchhofer on 161.