The final round of the 2016 GP2 season takes place this week at the Yas Marina Circuit. Last month, at the tenth and penultimate round in Sepang, rookie Antonio Giovinazzi proved his worth again after he dominated the Feature Race from start to finish. With this eighth win, he took
the lead in the drivers' standings ahead of his teammate and closest rival Pierre Gasly. Newcomers PREMA Racing were also delighted to grab the GP2 Team crown on their first try.

The following day, it was another rookie's time to shine: Luca Ghiotto who had finished seventh on Saturday started the Sprint Race in P2 and managed to take the lead after Turn 1. He then controlled the rest of the pack until the chequered flag claiming a maiden win. As a consequence, the Trident driver moved up to seventh in the drivers' standings edging out both Oliver Rowland and Alex Lynn.

This season will conclude this week, and all eyes will be focused on Giovinazzi, Gasly and Raffaele Marciello with the three title contenders fighting for the supreme GP2 crown. It will surely be an intense finale season with Pirelli having selected Medium and Supersoft tyres. Whilst the
Free Practice session and the Sprint Race will take place at daytime, both the Qualifying session and the Feature Race will happen at night-time calling for the drivers and the teams to adapt to the smooth surface in different temperatures.

The scene is set. Let the action begin!

Mario Isola, Pirelli racing manager: "In GP2 Series, three drivers can become champion in Abu Dhabi. They will hope to follow in the footsteps of last year's champion Stoffel Vandoorne, who have already raced in Formula 1 and made great impressions, earning himself full season in 2017. Nominating the medium and supersoft for GP2 deliberately produces a large performance gap between the two compounds and it will be interesting to see how the drivers manage that strategically."

Note

Giovinazzi and Marciello could become the third Italian driver to win the GP2 Series following in the footsteps of Giorgio Pantano (2008) and Davide Valsecchi (2012).

Pierre Gasly could become the second Frenchman to win the GP2 Series following into the footsteps of Romain Grosjean (2011).

There are two driver changes this week-end: GP3 multiple race winner Emile Bernstorff joins Arden International in car 25 to run alongside Nabil Jeffri. Also, Swiss Louis Delétraz will make his debut with Carlin to replace Marvin Kirchhöfer in car 19.

Emil Bernstorff is 23 years old and he finished 4th in the 2015 GP3 Series season. His GP3 tally includes 3 wins, 12 podium places, 3 front row starts, and 2 fastest laps. He has tested with GP2 teams in 2014 and 2015 and covered 1,328kms in four days of testing.

Louis Delétraz is 19 years old. He finished 2nd and best rookie in this season's Formula V8 3.5 with 2 wins, 9 podiums, 3 pole positions and
5 fastest laps.

Both the Qualifying session and the Feature Race will take place at nighttime.

2016 wins: Antonio Giovinazzi (5), Pierre Gasly (3), Jordan King (2), Sergey Sirotkin (2), Alex Lynn (2), Norman Nato (2), Artem Markelov (1),
Nobuharu Matsushita (1), Mitch Evans (1), Luca Ghiotto (1).

2016 pole positions: Gasly (4), Sirotkin (3), Giovinazzi (2), Nato (1).

2016 podium places: Giovinazzi (8), Gasly (8), Sirotkin (7), Marciello (6), King (5), Nato (5), Rowland (4), Lynn (4), Ghiotto (4), Malja (2), Latifi (1), Markelov (1), Matsushita (1), Kirchhöfer (1), Evans (1), Gelael (1), Arthur Pic (1).