Abu Dhabi GP3: Ocon takes pole and championship lead

Esteban Ocon clinched a crucial pole for the opening race of the Abu Dhabi GP3 season finale, taking the championship lead from Luca Ghiotto by two points.

2015 GP3 Series Round 8. Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain Saturday 21 November 2015.Matthew Parry, Koiranen GP

Michele Beretta, Trident leads Zaid Ashkanani, Campos Racing and Aleksander Bosak, Arden International

Emil Bernstorff, Arden International leads Matthew Parry, Koiranen GP and Marvin Kirchhofer, ART Grand Prix

Marvin Kirchhofer, ART Grand Prix leads Esteban Ocon, ART Grand Prix

Race 1 Podium: third place Esteban Ocon, ART Grand Prix

ART Grand Prix's Ocon had set the early pace before Kevin Ceccon and Jimmy Eriksson went quicker than the Frenchman.

But the Mercedes junior came back and went 0.337s ahead of Eriksson after 10 minutes.

It was then Trident driver Ghiotto who headed the timesheets, his lap of 1m55.634s putting him 0.417s ahead of Ocon, albeit only after appearing to exceed track limits.

For the final runs, Ceccon took provisional pole before Ocon lapped in a 1m55.491s, going a mere 0.016s ahead of the Italian driver to take his third straight GP3 pole and the championship lead.

Ceccon finished second ahead of Marvin Kirchhofer with Ghiotto only managing fourth, after losing crucial time in the final sector.

The top four were separated by only 0.088s, while the top 16 were within a second of the polesitter's time.

Eriksson was fifth ahead of Emil Bernstorff, while a fast looking Antonio Fuoco only finished seventh in an incident-free session.

The top 10 was rounded by Alex Palou in eighth, Matt Parry ninth and Artur Janosz 10th.

Qualifying times:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Esteban Ocon	ART Grand Prix	1'55.491
2	Kevin Ceccon	Arden International	1'55.507	0.016
3	Marvin Kirchhofer	ART Grand Prix	1'55.549	0.058
4	Luca Ghiotto	Trident	1'55.574	0.083
5	Jimmy Eriksson	Koiranen GP	1'55.679	0.188
6	Emil Bernstorff	Arden International	1'55.852	0.361
7	Antonio Fuoco	Carlin	1'55.873	0.382
8	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	1'55.919	0.428
9	Matt Parry	Koiranen GP	1'55.952	0.461
10	Artur Janosz	Trident	1'56.064	0.573
11	Pal Varhaug	Jenzer Motorsport	1'56.095	0.604
12	Mitch Gilbert	Carlin	1'56.205	0.714
13	Matheo Tuscher	Jenzer Motorsport	1'56.265	0.774
14	Ralph Boschung	Jenzer Motorsport	1'56.284	0.793
15	Matevos Isaakyan	Koiranen GP	1'56.313	0.822
16	Zaid Ashkanani	Campos Racing	1'56.361	0.870
17	Alex Fontana	Status Grand Prix	1'56.538	1.047
18	Adderly Fong	Carlin	1'56.877	1.386
19	Sandy Stuvik	Status Grand Prix	1'56.936	1.445
20	Michele Beretta	Trident	1'57.030	1.539
21	Alfonso Celis	ART Grand Prix	1'57.163	1.672
22	Konstantin Tereschenko	Campos Racing	1'57.468	1.977
23	Seb Morris*	Status Grand Prix	1'56.871	1.380
24	Alex Bosak	Arden International	1'58.865	3.374