2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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The GPVWC circus rolled into Abu Dhabi for the fourth race of the season, with teams ready to make a statement of intents after the opening rounds in the Far East.

Free practice showed from the start what was to come, with Lee Morris, Janne Tanskanen and Wayne Mullins setting an early pace, something they brought on to qualifying. On the grid, Tanskanen caught his fourth pole position with a sublime effort in his Nordsjoen, while behind him Morris and Mullins were within half a second of the Finn. Both Woods Racing cars were lined up behind.

As the lights turned green, Turn 1 saw Kieran Ryan collide with Mullins when fighting Nick Rowland for position. As the Irishman slowly made it back to the pits, miscommunication with Gavin Thomas caused the Welsh driver to rear end the Woods, effectively putting an end to the weekend for Ryan.

By the end of lap 1, Janne Tanskanen had opened a 1 second lead from Morris, while also Mark Stanton had joined the ranks of the retired drivers. The first few laps saw little action worthy of note, besides a spin by Lee Iden on lap 2 and a wide by Mullins that resulted in Wicks and Mickael Folcher going through. Iden soon made up for his mistake, using the superior engine power of his Draig to take 9th from William Ponissi and quickly pulling away in the distance.

A faultless stint saw Tanskanen come in to pit at the end of lap 18, with Morris being now in the lead. The Finn recovered his position four laps later, as the CSG Racing driver and Mark Wicks of Woods stopped for new tyres too. Minutes later Gavin Thomas, fresh of his first ever point-scoring position in Suzuka, saw his hopes of more glory ended by the bollard in turn 1 – a slight brush enough to cause irreparable damage to the car. The same hazard proved to be the undoing of race leader Tanskanen – the Nordsjoen bouncing in the path of Ponissi who had to use his goalkeeper reflex to take evasive action. The event left Morris in the lead with 23 laps to go. Mark Wicks, however, brought the fight to the CSG driver, and managed to close down the gap to little more than a second before the chequered flag. Behind the leading pair, Liam Hatchell made up 6 places to finish 3rd.

With none of the Nordsjoens finishing the race, CSG Racing took the opportunity to leapfrog them into 1st in the Constructors’ Championship, while Lee Morris cut Janne Tanskanen’s lead in the Drivers’ rankings to just 2 points.

Preceded by:
2010 Japanese Grand Prix
2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010
Succeeded by:
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix