McLaren young driver Stoffel Vandoorne has secured the GP2 championship with four races remaining.
The Belgian driver clinched the title in Sunday's sprint race in Sochi as he came home fourth behind race-winner Richie Stanaway, Rio Haryanto and Raffaele Marciello. The result gave Vandoorne an unassailable 108-point lead over Alexander Rossi with two rounds and four races still to run this season.
Vandoorne's championship was set up by a dominant start to the season which saw him win the first four feature races. While he has only won once in 11 races since then, the 23-year-old has finished on the podium on eight further occasions and has only failed to score once.
Vandoorne is McLaren's test and development driver and was linked with Jenson Button's seat before the 2009 world champion signed to stay with the team for 2016.
While McLaren is keen to have both Vandoorne and Kevin Magnussen racing in F1 next season, only Lotus and Manor have vacancies which either driver could target. With Magnussen saying he would not be willing to wait for a second year in his role as reserve driver, Vandoorne is likely to be promoted to the reserve role at McLaren next year.
Rosberg beats Hamilton to Sochi pole
AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix qualifying
Gallery: Carlos Sainz's crash in FP3
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