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Abu Dhabi GP2: McLaren tester Vandoorne dominates feature race

McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne won the GP2 feature race in Abu Dhabi to take his fourth win of 2014, and move into second in the championship ahead of Felipe Nasr

Polesitter Vandoorne got away cleanly to hold off a charging Nasr, the Brazilian moving up to second from his starting position of fifth by the end of the first lap.

A scrappy move by Rene Binder with Jon Lancaster and Russian Grand Prix sprint race winner Marco Sorensen brought out the safety car at the end of lap one, but Vandoorne's well controlled restart allowed him to pull away from the field.

When the pit window opened on lap six, Vandoorne and Nasr jumped immediately, feeding back into the pack in ninth and 10th respectively.

The Belgian had his work cut out to scythe his way through the field, first stealing past Artem Markelov and then Lancaster.

Lancaster clipped the back of the ART car just afterwards, losing his part of his wing in the process, but Vandoorne held firm and went on to win.

Jolyon Palmer and Mitch Evans were on a different strategy, running the medium tyre first. They almost touched leaving the pits with eight laps remaining, and came out in second and third ahead of Johnny Cecotto and Nasr.

With fresher tyres, Palmer and Evans were catching Vandoorne, but were unable to get close enough.

Vandoorne's win means he now holds second in the standings ahead of Carlin driver Nasr, while Palmer's second place finish sealed the teams' title for DAMS.

Stephane Richelmi, Stefano Cecotto and Coletti all finished in the points, with Arthur Pic taking eighth for Sunday's sprint race. Rio Haryanto and Daniel de Jong completed the scorers.

RESULTS - 31 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1h00m56.725s
2 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 12.157s
3 Mitch Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 19.159s
4 Felipe Nasr Carlin 22.205s
5 Stephane Richelmi DAMS 28.099s
6 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident 31.375s
7 Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 34.254s
8 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 34.499s
9 Rio Haryanto Caterham Racing 36.797s
10 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 46.613s
11 Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 47.586s
12 Julian Leal Carlin 50.140s
13 Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix 54.585s
14 Kimiya Sato Campos Racing 57.199s
15 Nathanael Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 1m05.269s
16 Sergio Canamasas Trident 1m08.362s
17 Simon Trummer Rapax 1m12.621s
18 Jon Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 1m19.605s
19 Kevin Giovesi Rapax 1m19.877s
20 Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 1m25.909s
21 Pierre Gasly Caterham Racing 1m26.649s
22 Nicholas Latifi Hilmer Motorsport 1m32.065s
- Artem Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME Retirement
- Andre Negrao Arden International Retirement
- Marco Sorensen MP Motorsport Retirement
- Rene Binder Arden International Retirement


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