Abu Dhabi GP2: James Calado wins as Russian Time takes teams' crown

Further back, fellow Briton Sam Bird's fourth place was enough to win the teams' title for Russian Time as rival Carlin suffered a disastrous race.

ART racer Calado scored his second win of the season thanks to a blinding start that rocketed him past the front row of Johnny Cecotto Jr (Arden) and Felipe Nasr (Carlin).

Seconds later, Nasr pushed Cecotto into a spin at the first corner that caused huge evasive action behind that shook up the order. Dani Clos took the most benefit, having bogged down on the grid, and surged his MP Motorsport machine past newly crowned champion Fabio Leimer at Turn 2.

Two safety cars interrupted the race, but Calado held his nerve to win by 0.7s from Clos, having been as much as 3.7s clear only for his lead to be negated.

"Just what we came here to do, well done boys," he said on the slowing down lap after a result that lifted him to third in the standings.

Leimer kept Clos honest throughout the race, but dropped away to finish a distant third at the finish.

Bird finished fourth, which was enough to elevate Russian Time ahead of Carlin, although Bird reported his car was "very difficult to drive".

After Nasr's shunt at the opening turn, for which he got a drivethrough penalty, Carlin team-mate Jolyon Palmer dropped out of the top 10 after clouting a kerb in the hotel section.

He battled his way back ahead of Julian Leal, but was later forced out with a problem at the rear of his car. With neither Carlin car scoring, Bird's fourth was enough for the teams' title.

Daniel Abt concluded his best-ever GP2 weekend in fifth place for ART, ahead of Marcus Ericsson, Simon Trummer and Sergio Canamasas.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  James Calado         ART                 44m04.124s
 2.  Dani Clos            MP                     +0.787s
 3.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering     +4.965s
 4.  Sam Bird             Russian Time           +9.440s
 5.  Daniel Abt           ART                    +9.957s
 6.  Marcus Ericsson      DAMS                  +11.981s
 7.  Simon Trummer        Rapax                 +13.188s
 8.  Sergio Canamasas     Caterham              +16.432s
 9.  Stefano Coletti      Rapax                 +18.117s
10.  Julian Leal          Racing Engineering    +18.487s
11.  Jake Rosenzweig      Addax                 +24.753s
12.  Rio Haryanto         Addax                 +33.689s
13.  Nathanael Berthon    Trident               +34.153s
14.  Mitch Evans          Arden                 +34.485s
15.  Gianmarco Raimondo   Trident               +36.123s
16.  Rene Binder          Lazarus               +36.884s
17.  Daniel de Jong       MP                    +37.471s
18.  Felipe Nasr          Carlin                +40.271s
19.  Vittorio Ghirelli    Lazarus               +41.869s
20.  Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                +1m19.122s
21.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Hilmer                 +3 laps*
                                           
*Not running at finish                     
                                             
Retirements:                               
                                             
     Jolyon Palmer        Carlin                 17 laps
     Jon Lancaster        Hilmer                  9 laps
     Johnny Cecotto Jr    Arden                   0 laps
     Alexander Rossi      Caterham                0 laps