3 and 1 for Jean-Karl Vernay!
The final round of the Formula 3 Euro Series provided the stage for Jean-
Karl Vernay to get back to winning ways. His first taste of champagne came
with a podium place in Race 1 and he set the corks popping again with a
splendid victory in Race 2. The event saw him fastest in open practice
before going on to clock the fastest lap in Sunday's Race and bag the
biggest tally of points of any driver over the weekend. The man from Lyon
finished the season in 5th place and took the symbolic top VW driver title.
Next up is Macao!
The way he has performed this year, Jean-Karl Vernay would also qualify for
the title of 'Hockenheim Meister', if there was one! He was already a
winner last May on this circuit. It's a tradition: what is usually the most
hotly-contested of F3 championship starts and ends its European tour on the
outskirts of Mannheim. The weather was fine last spring but for this
autumn's meeting the barometer reading was more uncertain. Rain tyres were
on during open practice, and Jean-Karl was in his element as he dominated
proceedings. He was hoping to be among the front-runners in qualifying as
he had been in Dijon two weeks before. In the vital moments the track was
damp. It was not raining but the threat of a new downpour had everyone
dashing to get their best laps in at the start of the session.
"I got held up when I made my first attempts and just as the traffic ahead
was thinning out the red flag came out after two excellent partial times,"
explained Jean-Karl. As feared, the rain came and made any improvement out
of the question. It was rather like a lottery. Jean-Karl eventually got 6th
place on the Race 1 starting grid.
He got off to a great start in Saturday's race. He left Wittmann standing
and managed to get by Garcia. The next car in the Signature driver's sights
was Mehri's. He took the Spaniard's place when the latter made a mistake in
front of the Mercedes stand. Jean-Karl then closed in fast on Bottas but
ran out of laps in which to put any real pressure on the Finn. He finished
a good 3rd with the 2nd fastest lap of the race.
Sunday saw the sun doing its best to dry out a wet track and setting a
dilemma for the teams. Should they mount slicks? Or rain tyres, even if it
meant a pit stop to change them during the course of the race? Signature
decided to opt for the second solution. Once again 6th on the grid, this
time thanks to the 8-place reverse grid rule, Jean-Karl fell back eight
places in the first lap! "Those of us on the right of the track were left
floundering because there was no grip there compared to the left-hand side.
Fortunately the car was going like a bomb and I still had 40 minutes to
make up the lost ground. Each lap I managed to get past someone and that
way I was soon back up to 3rd." Half-way through the race the track had
dried out sufficiently for Jean-Karl to come in to mount slicks. So he cut
short his battle with Bottas and came into the pits. He was back down in
14th place when he emerged again but nothing seemed to be able to stop him
from then on. He broke his personal best for the number of overtakes in a
race and trumped Zanella on the final lap to come home a glorious winner.
Then it was time to tot up the results. Jean-Karl finished the season in
5th place in the championship, ahead of all the other competitors driving
VW-powered cars. His tally for the season was five podium places, including
two victories. During qualifying he finished ahead of his team-mates Maki
and Geronimi six times out on ten. The cherry on the cake for him would be
a win in Macao, where he will go with the Signature team next November 21-
22.
-credit: jkvernay.com
