Tio Ellinas has taken the final GP3 victory of 2013 for Marussia Manor Racing as newly crowned champion Daniil Kvyat could only finish fifth.
Ellinas, who started second, got into the lead by the first corner and never looked back as pole sitter Patrick Kujala could only stare in disbelief as the Cypriot made a rocket start.
It was to get worse for Koiranen GP‘s Kujala as he slipped to fourth not long after, both Dean Stoneman and Conor Daly got past him in the opening few corners, he ended up finishing 19th.
A few laps after the start it was Nick Yelloly who was being focussed on by the Abu Dhabi crowd as he was involved in a mammoth battle with GP3 champion Kvyat. It took three laps for the battle to resolve itself as 2014 Toro Rosso driver Kvyat finally got his MW Arden machine past Carlin‘s Yelloly.
Kujala was getting positively roughed up by lap five as both Yelloly and Carlin team mate Alexander Sims were on their way past the Spaniard and were soon setting purple sectors as their charge to the top of the grid began.
Skipping forward to only two laps from the checkered flag, Jack Harvey was closing on ART Grand Prix team mate Daly for the final podium place but was unable to get the move stuck and had to settle for fourth place, just ahead of Kvyat.
The most worthy driver on the podium had to be series newcomer Dean Stoneman, competing in his first single seater race since being both diagnosed with – and recovering from – testicular cancer, the Koiranen racer scored a stunning second place proving he is definitely multi skilled coming off the back of a successful season in Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
In the drivers championship Facu Regalia finished second despite not scoring in today’s GP3 race with Conor Daly sitting 12 points back on 126 securing third place.
Now the off season has started, www.theCheckeredFlag.co.uk will be keeping an eye on all the teams and driver changes throughout the winter before the pre season testing starts again in 2014.