Jonathan Summerton made history in Shanghai as he scored both his and the USA's maiden A1GP triumph in the World Cup of Motorsport feature race, but Switzerland's Neel Jani's failure to beat New Zealand's Jonny Reid means the battle for the crown will go all the way down to the wire on British soil at
Brands Hatch in three weeks' time.
Summerton's Chinese success was made all-the-more remarkable as he began the race in a good deal of pain, following his coming-together off the start-line with Reid in the earlier sprint. The steering wheel in his ‘We The People' car had kicked back in the impact, and the Floridian had to be given an anti-inflammatory dressing by A1GP medical delegate, Dr Paul Trafford, to reduce bruising and swelling in his right hand.
If it hurt, though, Summerton failed to let it show, as he seized the advantage in the feature race right from the second the lights went out, as pole-sitter Jani struggled to get away from the grid. The leader continued to eke out a gap as the race progressed, with his Swiss rival gamely holding onto second place and with the championship in sight, despite grappling with the lack of second gear – the reason behind his tardy getaway.
Whilst Summerton carried on unimpeded to the chequered flag almost ten seconds to the good – making the USA the 16th nation to win in A1GP and incredibly the tenth this season in only 18 races – Jani's woes only got worse, as fifth gear decided to go the same way as second and he fell back increasingly into the clutches of Filipe Albuquerque and Adam Carroll.
Albuquerque – already buoyed by his rostrum finish in the sprint – had dropped back a position at the start from his third grid slot as Narain Karthikeyan snuck past. The 22-year-old Portuguese rookie regained the place on lap five, however, with a perfectly-judged manoeuvre, and he would go on to leapfrog the struggling Jani in the second round of pit-stops
en route to the runner-up laurels.
![Jonathan Summerton (USA) - A1 Team USA [Pic credit: A1GP Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/286601.jpg)
