Hong Kong teenager Matt Solomon capped off what may well be his last full-time season in Asia with an impressive podium finish in the final round of the 2014 Audi R8 LMS Cup Asia Series at Abu Dhabi, before immediately returning to Europe to contest the final official European Formula 3 test of the season.

Coming off a fantastic, yet testing final race in the Formula Masters China Series, where he claimed second in the Championship, Solomon book-ended his final run in the hotly contested Audi R8 LMS Cup Series by testing an FIA European Formula 3 Dallara/Mercedes in both the UK and Spain.

“I have to admit, after my first taste of a current-spec Formula 3 car at Pembrey and Silverstone, I couldn’t have been better prepared for the final round of Audi Cup,” Solomon said. “It’s been a tough year in the Hong Kong Audi R8, with a number of unfortunate DNFs due to incidents that should never have happened.

“No question it was a tough season, but to come back in the last race of the year with a podium I think was just reward for all the work we put in as a team throughout the year.

“With the Gulf 12-Hour GT race on the same weekend, our Abu Dhabi event started on Thursday and finished on Saturday, and some of our sessions were under lights or in twilight which was really cool.

“Working with my new engineer who was very experienced with the R8, the car felt fantastic, I felt really comfortable and I loved the circuit, and that translated to results. In qualifying I was fourth most of the session until a late charge by Marchy [Lee] dropped me back to fifth, but I still had a second row start by virtue of a penalty that Adderly carried over from the last race at Shanghai.

“Race one was a night race with an 8:00 start. I got a great jump heading across line and moved into third place. Franky [Cheng] was pushing hard from behind and he managed to move past me mid race, but I was holding on to my ‘push-to-pass’ until the closing laps.

“Sure enough, I started to catch Alex [Yoong] and Franky and had a huge gap behind me, but coming into the Hotel complex, I suddenly lost drive. Unfortunately the gear potentiometer broke which meant that I couldn’t select any gears for the remainder of the race, ultimately having to retire the car. That said, I still set the sixth fastest time, but felt I would have gone quicker over the final laps with my ‘push-to-pass’ still in reserve, but sixth was still pretty reasonable.

“Sadly a bad start in race two forced me back to ninth and I had to fight my way back to the front. I got back to sixth quite quickly past Rahel [Frey], then a late race clash between Adderly and Franky gave me a couple more spots. From there I started to pull in the leaders and actually got up alongside Marchy in the battle for third, but didn’t have enough ‘push-to-pass’ to make the move stick, so had to settle for fourth at the flag.

“A stewards enquiry after the race meant I was elevated to third and made my first outright podium. I also won the four-rings trophy, so I was very happy with the way the weekend played out – it was a fantastic end to the season.”

In an almost carbon-copy of his Formula Master China Series end-of-season presentation, no sooner had he received his final round trophy, and Matt was straight off to Europe to re-join the Double R Racing Formula 3 Euro Series team at Valencia in Spain.

“It was great to be back behind the wheel of an F3 again, but unlike my dream debut in the UK, Spain was a little tougher,” he admitted.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t use the new chassis that I’d driven at Pembrey and Silverstone because it was still on the way back from Macau, and there was some concern from both myself and the team that the chassis we used at Valencia may not have been 100%. That said it was still an invaluable experience.

“Day one was wet, and on the second day again it was wet early, but dried in the afternoon. I showed good speed but unfortunately in the last session I hurt my back  and couldn’t really put in a quicker time on my second set of tyres. Nonetheless I was  happy with the progress we made.

“We had a day break between days two and three, so we did a lot of development work with the car for the final day. It still didn’t feel 100% fantastic – the characteristics of the car weren’t exactly how I like it. We did a lot of testing with a whole range of things, so it was very productive.

“As a race driver, I want to be fast every session, so whilst I’m probably a little disappointed that my speed wasn’t obvious for everyone to see [Matt was classified eighth over the three days], I’m also buoyed by the fact that I learnt so much over those three days on an engineering front.

“That’s me done for the year now. The next time I’ll be behind the wheel of an F3 is the first official Euro F3 test scheduled for March in Valencia, but I’ll be looking for as many opportunities as I can between now and then to get more track time, whatever that is..

“I want to wish all my supporters, my friends and my fans a safe and fun New Year.

“I also want to thank all my sponsors, and my family for all their ongoing support. I have to thank Audi too for giving me such an awesome opportunity this year, and Eurasia for the amazing effort they’ve put in over the last two years.

“As for 2015, plans are well underway and we’ll reveal the full extent of what my season will look like very soon..! Stay tuned… Happy New Year!”