Jonathan Summerton brought an impressive rookie season in the Formula Three Euro Series to a close in style by taking making the most of his reverse grid pole position to romp to a lights-to-flag win at Hockenheim.
Summerton has been one of the surprise packages of the season, coming to the Euro Series as a little known quantity but impressing immediately with a strength in qualifying that has seen him start inside the top ten on all but three occasions this season despite his lack of experience, the American going on to take podium results at the Norisring and Le Mans.
Summerton's win at Hockenheim did not come without a heart stopping moment though, the American having gotten out in front of compatriot Charlie Kimball, only for the Signature-Plus driver to misjudge his braking into the hairpin on lap two and clout the back of Summerton's Mucke entry, riding over the top of his rear-wheel before Kimball coming to rest with bent suspension and an early retirement.
Summerton recovered though, with things getting easier for him when second place Sebastian Vettel threw away his chances with a spin at turn one, the German plummeting to the back of the field and out of the reckoning.
With Summerton comfortable in the lead and pulling away from the pack, the attention thus fell on who would walk away with second place, with a battle raging between Giedo van der Garde, doing a sterling job having started ninth, Sebastien Buemi and race one winner Esteban Guerrieri.
After several changes of position, the order remained the same with van der Garde holding off Buemi, who in turn made it the strongest weekend yet for Mucke Motorsport with third place. Guerrieri was fourth, ahead of Robert Streit, gaining more precious points for Prema Powerteam on his series return, while newly crowned champion Paul di Resta avoided the carnage to take sixth and the final point.
Nonetheless, the biggest smiles were to be seen on Summerton's face, who became the fourth American in a row, after Kimball and Richard Antinucci, to triumph in the 'reverse grid' races.
“Winning a race in the Formula 3 Euro Series is great. I had a good start. I don't really know what happened after that, but I just gave everything in order to maintain my first position. I had a very good car, too. Next year, I will most probably be racing in the Formula 3 Euro Series again.”
