2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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  2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Race details
Race 15 of the 2015 Superleague season
Date	24th September, 2015
Official name	2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Location	Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.451 mi / 5.554 km
Distance	55 laps, 189.805 mi / 305.461 km
Weather	Clear
Pole position
Driver	Alex Cooper	CSG Racing-Potentia
Time	1:34.717
Fastest Lap
Driver	Fran Lopez	Red Archer-Valiant
Time	1:35.235 on lap 53
Podium
First	Alex Cooper	CSG Racing-Potentia
Second	David Fidock	Hawkeye-Potentia
Third	Florian Geier	Nordsjoen-Martex

The 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the fifteenth round of the 2015 Superleague season, taking place at the Yas Marina Circuit on 24th September.

Despite being out of the running for the championship itself, Alex Cooper of CSG Racing dominated the race, taking pole and winning with a margin of 17 seconds. Cooper did not manage fastest lap however; that honour going to Fran Lopez for the second race running.

Second in the race was reigning champion David Fidock while third was Florian Geier, his second podium in three races. Crucially for the Driver's Championship, Fidock comfortably outscored leader Philipp Puschke who finished 5th. Fidock was now only 21 points behind with two races to go.

In terms of the constructor's championship, Tom Parker's fourth-placed finish meant that both CSG drivers finished ahead of the lead Vod:Bul, with Pushcke's team-mate, stand-in Douwe Tapper, being classified 11th after a hefty penalty. This slashed the points deficit from 31 at the start of the race to just 9.

Outside the race for the championships, the round was notable for the fantastic second-place on the grid for Woods Racing, driven by Sven de Vries, looking to fulfil the potential shown but denied at Singapore. Though the Dutch-American star dropped down to 7th at the end of the race, it was still Woods' best finish of the year so far and put a comfortable gap between them and Green Stripes Racing, who had come up level in the Constructor's championship.

Tapper and de Vries were making their return to the grid; Tapper would race two Grands Prix in place of Jernej Simoncic while de Vries was finally back in the Woods for good. Like Tapper, Nordsjoen's reserve driver David Jundt would also race two Grands Prix for the team, filling in for Agustin Canapino as he had done back in Monaco.

Other teams that had their final driver changes of the year included Hawkeye Racing, with Wopke Hoekstra back in as Fidock's team-mate, having been away for two races, while Ari Nieminen took over the #10 Nijo, having driven for the team at Silverstone.

Unfortunately, several cars were missing; 22 entrants was the lowest turn-out of the year, although conversely the race only had two retirements. Among the missing were Deividas Misiulis' Red Archer, the Lithuanian not to return, and the #83 Kernow, generally driven by Bart De Vos. With Jordan Weekes banned for one race, Torrent Motorsports were complete absent.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	Grid
1	13	Alex Cooper	CSG Racing - Potentia	1:34.717	—	1
2	8	Sven de Vries	Woods - Trinity	1:35.334	+0.616	2
3	27	Florian Geier	Nordsjoen - Martex	1:35.372	+0.655	3
4	1	David Fidock	Hawkeye - Potentia	1:35.430	+0.712	4
5	7	Pedro Melim	Midnight - Potentia	1:35.644	+0.927	5
6	24	Tom Parker	CSG Racing - Potentia	1:35.767	+1.050	6
7	14	Philipp Puschke	Vod:Bul - Valiant	1:35.947	+1.230	7
8	19	David Jundt	Nordsjoen - Martex	1:36.125	+1.408	8
9	25	Tom van der Voort	Midnight - Potentia	1:36.267	+1.550	9
10	9	Roy Schroten	Woods - Trinity	1:36.396	+1.679	151
11	21	Fran Lopez	Red Archer - Valiant	1:36.481	+1.764	10
12	69	Jason Muscat	Edonis - Valiant	1:36.782	+2.064	11
13	15	Douwe Tapper	Vod:Bul - Valiant	1:36.871	+2.154	12
14	11	Ben Horrill	Green Stripes - Valiant	1:37.059	+2.342	13
15	5	Kenney Lybeer	Nijo - Trinity	1:37.069	+2.352	14
16	4	Marcos Riffel	Edonis - Valiant	1:37.092	+2.375	16
17	2	Wopke Hoekstra	Hawkeye - Potentia	1:37.178	+2.461	17
18	20	Dewald Nel	Green Stripes - Valiant	1:37.399	+2.682	18
19	45	Kieran Ryan	Phoenix - Trinity	1:37.968	+3.251	222
20	10	Ari Nieminen	Nijo - Trinity	1:38.026	+3.309	19
21	46	Mikko Jakonen	Phoenix - Trinity	1:38.536	+3.819	20
22	12	Mark Wicks	Kernow - Trinity	1:38.864	+4.147	21

Notes:

• ¹ — Roy Schroten had a 5-place grid penalty for avoidable contact at the previous round.
• ² — Kieran Ryan had a 10-place grid penalty for avoidable contact at the previous round.

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts.
1	13	Alex Cooper	CSG Racing - Potentia	55	30:09.660	1	25
2	1	David Fidock	Hawkeye - Potentia	55	+17.872	4	20
3	27	Florian Geier	Nordsjoen - Martex	55	+26.696	3	16
4	24	Tom Parker	CSG Racing - Potentia	55	+30.360	6	13
5	14	Philipp Puschke	Vod:Bul - Valiant	55	+36.873	7	11
6	19	David Jundt	Nordsjoen - Martex	55	+55.451	8	10
7	8	Sven de Vries	Woods - Trinity	55	+1:07.621	2	9
8	7	Pedro Melim	Midnight - Potentia	55	+1:28.612	5	8
9	21	Fran Lopez	Red Archer - Valiant	55	+1:32.438	10	7
10	2	Wopke Hoekstra	Hawkeye - Potentia	55	+1:33.549	17	6
111	15	Douwe Tapper	Vod:Bul - Valiant	55	+1:57.928	12	5
12	9	Roy Schroten	Woods - Trinity	54	+1 Lap	15	4
13	4	Marcos Riffel	Edonis - Valiant	54	+1 Lap	16	3
14	11	Ben Horrill	Green Stripes - Valiant	54	+1 Lap	13	2
15	69	Jason Muscat	Edonis - Valiant	54	+1 Lap	11	1
16	5	Kenney Lybeer	Nijo - Trinity	53	+2 Laps	14
17	10	Ari Nieminen	Nijo - Trinity	53	+2 Laps	19
18	45	Kieran Ryan	Phoenix - Trinity	53	+2 Laps	22
19	12	Mark Wicks	Kernow - Trinity	52	+3 Laps	21
20	46	Mikko Jakonen	Phoenix - Trinity	52	+3 Laps	20
Ret	20	Dewald Nel	Green Stripes - Valiant	33	Accident	18
Ret	25	Tom van der Voort	Midnight - Potentia	8	Accident	9

Notes:

• ¹ — Douwe Tapper had a total 25 seconds added to race time; 10 seconds for avoidable contact and 15 seconds for not observing pit-lane etiquette.

Standings after the race

• Bold text indicates who still has a mathematical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Philipp Puschke	266
	2	David Fidock	245
	3	Lewis Redshaw	176
1	4	Alex Cooper	176
1	5	Agustin Canapino	161

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Vod:Bul-Valiant	364
	2	CSG Racing-Martex	355
	3	Nordsjoen-Potentia	312
	4	Hawkeye-Valiant	290
	5	Red Archer-Potentia	231

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

External links

• Official results
• Broadcast replay

Preceded by: 2015 Japanese Grand Prix	GPVWC Superleague 2015 season	Succeeded by: 2015 United States Grand Prix
Preceded by: 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Succeeded by: 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix