Dylan Young finally took his first MRF Challenge win at Dubai Autodrome, after eight years of competing in the championship.
The Australian, who has been a regular in the series since 2012, won the third race of the season opener and the first race of Saturday by just 0.683 seconds over championship leader Michelangelo Amendola.
BRDC British Formula 3 race-winner Joshua Mason had a similarly close battle to beat karting graduate Manaf Hijjawi and USF2000’s Yuven Sundaramoorthy to third, with 0.712s covering the trio.
After dissapointment in the first two races of the weekend, Sundaramoorthy rose to the top in race four to take his first win in winged single-seaters.
Amendola was second, this time 3.429s behind, with Danish Formula 4 graduate Valdemar Eriksen completing the podium.
His home country rival Largim Ali failed to start races four and five, meaning only eight cars took part.
Reece Ushijima, in only his second weekend in single-seaters, took fastest lap in seventh place.
Amendola made it three wins out of five in the final race, once again doing so under pressure from Mason, with Ushijima taking fastest lap again.
Results round-up
Race 3
1 Dylan Young 10 laps
2 Michelangelo Amendola +0.683s
3 Joshua Mason +6.359s
4 Manaf Hijjawi +6.970s
5 Yuven Sundaramoorthy +7.071s
6 Valdemar Eriksen? +10.493s
7 Reece Ushijima +11.262s
8 Largim Ali +20.455s
9 Chetan Korada +29.565s
Fastest lap: Amendola, 1m58.364s
Race 4
1 Sundaramoorthy 10 laps
2 Amendola +3.429s
3 Eriksen +7.787s
4 Hijjawi +8.479s
5 Young +9.122s
6 Mason +10.976s
7 Ushijima +11.438s
8 Korada +41.730s
DNS Ali
FL: Ushijima, 1m58.311s
Race 5
1 Amendola 10 laps
2 Mason +1.159s
3 Young +3.438s
4 Eriksen +4.682s
5 Ushijima +6.072s
6 Sundaramoorthy +10.382s
7 Hijjawi +16.816s
8 Korada +37.198s
DNS Ali
FL: Ushijima, 1m58.415s
Championship standings
1 Amendola 119? ?2 Mason 77? ?3 Young 65? ?4 Eriksen 53? ?5 Sundaramoorthy 49? ?6 Hijjawi 49? ?7 Ushijima 44? ?8 Ali 28? ?9 Korada 18