The GP2 title will go down to the final race of the season on Sunday in Abu Dhabi as Pierre Gasly stormed to victory in Saturday's feature race, giving the Frenchman a 12-point lead over Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Prema driver took his fourth win of the season ahead of ART's Nobuharu Matsushita, whilst Russian Time's Artem Markelov completed the podium in third.
The Red Bull junior led from pole position with fellow front-row starter Sergey Sirotkin slotting in behind him. However Sirotkin was soon under pressure from his team-mate Matsushita with Oliver Rowland not far behind the battle for second.
That scrap allowed Gasly to open up an instant lead before his first stop on Lap 6.
Meanwhile then-championship leader Giovinazzi was back in sixth and fell further down the field as he chose to stay out for another lap as those around stopped for fresh rubber. With his tyres falling apart, he finally stopped, but came out amidst a battle between Alex Lynn and Raffaele Marciello.
Matsushita and Lynn, running the harder tyre, managed to stay out until Lap 26 before finally stopping. As they emerged from their stops, Matsushita rejoined in third and Lynn in P9.
The Japanese racer set about hunting down Markelov, who had taken a lot out of his tyres in a bid hold onto P2, but it wasn't enough and Matsushita's fresher tyres allowed him to cruise by in the final laps.
As the checkered flag came out, Gasly took a comfortable win and the championship lead, with it all to play for on Sunday.
Matsushita was second ahead of Markelov, Sirotkin and Giovinazzi. Completing the top ten runners was Norman Nato, Johnny Cecotto, Lynn, Nicholas Latifi and Marciello.