Carroll, meanwhile, had also lost out to the flying Karthikeyan at the start, but he rocketed by along the start-finish straight on lap seven, and he too would demote Jani before the close, adding another podium finish – Ireland's third this season and fourth overall – to his Mexico City victory last time out.
Critical for Jani, however, was the moment he was also jumped by New Zealand in the second round of stops, and he would cross the line almost seven seconds behind Reid following a heroic drive that had not quite been enough to clinch the championship one round early, though the 24-year-old and his team nevertheless travel to Brands Hatch at the beginning of May needing to score just three points out of a possible 32 to seal the deal.
Formula 1 refugees Alex Yoong and Karthikeyan occupied sixth and seventh places in the final reckoning for Malaysia and India respectively, though the latter ran as high as third in the early stages of proceedings. France's Franck Montagny – on his series debut – and Great Britain's Robbie Kerr, who are also fighting for position in the championship, enjoyed several on-track battles during the 38-lap race, but eighth and ninth places as they crossed the finish line fell a long way beneath expectations for both.
Germany's Michael Ammermüller took the final points-paying position in tenth while home hero CongFu Cheng, who had started all the way down in 20th following a nightmare qualifying, made up five places to finish a commendable 15th in front of his partisan supporters as all 22 cars unusually took the chequered flag.
“This win is definitely going to build up team morale,” enthused Summerton, who will turn 20 next week, as he paid tribute to a true ‘team effort', “and we are going to carry that on to
Brands Hatch. My hand only hurt when people started wanting to shake it after the race!
“We did our best to just go out there and go for the win. I knew basically Switzerland was going to be our biggest competition, so I had to go out there and go for the win and I just kept pushing once I got by.
![Jonathan Summerton (USA) - A1 Team USA [Pic credit: A1GP Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/286601.jpg)
