2016 Yas Marina Feature Race

The 2016 Yas Marina Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2016 Abu Dhabi Race 1, was the twenty-first and penultimate race of the 2016 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on the 26 October 2016. The race, staged in support of the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, would see Pierre Gasly claim a dominant victory, as well as the lead in the Championship.

Gasly would start the race weekend perfectly, snatching pole in qualifying by a third of a second. In contrast teammate and Championship leader Antonio Giovinazzi would qualify in sixth, knowing that he would win the title if he could beat the Frenchman by fifteen points in the race.

Unfortunately for Giovinazzi the title pretender would ace the start, with the Red Bull liveried Prema sprinting clear off the line. Indeed, Gasly left Sergey Sirotkin to fend off Nobuharu Matsushita and Oliver Rowland, while Giovinazzi found himself stuck behind Artem Markelov, still in sixth.

Gasly duly danced clear during the early stages, aided by Sirotkin's furious defence from his ART Grand Prix stablemate Nobuharu Matsushita. The Russian duly followed Gasly into the pits on lap six, while Giovinazzi had to complete another lap on worn tyres, leaving him powerless to prevent Alex Lynn and Raffaele Marciello slipping past.

Matsushita inherited the lead after Gasly and co. stopped, able to match the Frenchman's pace behind despite using older hard Pirelli tyres. Giovinazzi, meanwhile, had lost a lot of time by completing an extra lap on the softs, and was only able to match the pace of Lynn on fresh rubber.

Yet, those four were by far the fastest on circuit, exchanging fastest laps until Matsushita and Lynn swept in on lap 26. They rejoined third and ninth respectively, Lynn's pace having nosedived on his final lap, although the Brit was soon carving his way back up the order on fresh tyres.

Out front, meanwhile, Gasly was able to cruise home to claim victory and the Championship lead, with teammate Giovinazzi stuck down in fifth. Matsushita mugged Markelov for second late on, while Sirotkin inherited fourth after Norman Nato received a penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

The result of the race meant that Gasly only had to finish sixth or higher in the final race to claim the Championship, regardless of what teammate Giovinazzi could achieve.

Background
The 2016 edition of the FIA GP2 Series arrived at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi for its season finale, partnering Formula One and the GP3 Series which also came to their conclusions. The Yas Marina Circuit itself was unchanged ahead of the finale, with no modifications to either layout or the DRS zones. There were, however, a couple of changes to the entry list, with GP3 star Louis Delétraz making his debut with Carlin in place of Marvin Kirchhöfer, while Emil Bernstorff replaced the cashless Jimmy Eriksson at Arden International.

Into the Championship and with one round and two races to go it was Antonio Giovinazzi who led the title fight, just seven points ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly. Those two were the only drivers capable of taking the crown at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Giovinazzi capable of taking the title in the Feature. Indeed, the Italian simply had to outscore his teammate by ten points to claim the crown, while Gasly could secure the title if he claimed victory and the Italian failed to score.

Elsewhere, Prema Racing had been declared as Teams' Champions in the Sepang Feature, meaning all of the attention in Yas Marina would be on the fight for second. Indeed, Racing Engineering and Russian Time were separated by just six points heading to Abu Dhabi, with a maximum of 78 points left in play. ART Grand Prix were therefore still mathematically in the fight, while Arden International were set to claim the wooden spoon at the foot of the table.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Gelael handed a three place grid penalty for causing a collision.

Milestones

 * Debut race for Emil Bernstorff and Louis Delétraz.
 * Eighth and final pole position claimed by Pierre Gasly.
 * Gasly secured his fourth and final win in the GP2 Series.
 * Prema Racing claimed their ninth and final victory in GP2 as an entrant.
 * Fifth (and final) podium finish for Nobuharu Matsushita in GP2.
 * Matsushita also recorded his fifth and final fastest lap in GP2.
 * Artem Markelov claimed his third and last GP2 podium finish.

Standings
With just one race to go Pierre Gasly had moved back to the head of the GP2 field, and would start the final Sprint with a twelve point advantage. That meant that the Frenchman would win the title if he finished sixth or higher, or if Antonio Giovinazzi failed to finish in the top two. Conversely, the Italian would win the crown if he could win or finish second with Gasly failing to finish higher than seventh, with the two points for fastest lap also a factor.

In the Teams' Championship it was advantage Russian Time heading into the finale, with the Russian squad duelling with Racing Engineering to be runner-up. Indeed, with Prema Racing smashing past the 400 point mark out front, all of the attention in the Sprint for the teams would be on the fight for second, with two points separating the duo. ART Grand Prix were, however, still mathematically in the fight, but would need a maximum score to entertain any hopes of overhauling the pair.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.