Niklas Krütten: Top-10 and best Rookie at German Championship
The German Kart Championship (DKM) had its second-to-last season round last weekend at the high-speed track at Oschersleben. 100 pilots from 23 nations entered in a bid to fight for the top positions. Aged only 12 years, the Trier-based Niklas Krütten was continuously running within the Top-Rankings and was crowned best Rookie of the entire weekend.
The Friday went underway with the Free Practice sessions, in which Niklas was able to familiarise himself with the track. Niklas had a lucky escape following an accident when he lost control of his Kart. The chassis was broken and damaged but the 12-year-old escaped unscattered. As if nothing had happened, Niklas took part in the next test session and underlined his professionalism with great lap times.
Niklas competed in Group 1 of the KF-Junior Category and secured tenth place (from 17) in the Warm-Up session. As happened many times this year, the weather was once more a gamble and just ahead of the qualification runs, it started to rain slightly. “We made a mistake with the Set-up, because the Kart was put together for a slightly damp track, but the tarmac had already dried-up more or less at the start of the session”, said Niklas on Saturday. “We took the best out of the situation with P9 in group and P20 overall. We knew, I had a good speed and would be able to get a good result coming from behind.”
And the young Racer proofed exactly that during the Heats. Niklas started into the first Heat from the disadvantaged outer line and had to let a few other drivers pass him, before fighting back. The start into the second race was also not ideal, since Niklas was blocked by one of the drivers ahead, forcing him to brake hard to avoid a starting collision. He was satisfied with P13 and P12 during the Heats and 19th position in the overall ranking from 32 participants.
The rain was coming down very hard on Sunday, but Niklas, who showed his immense driving skills on a wet track at Ampfing already, impressed once more with his capabilities in the rain. In the first final run, he raced from P19 on the grid into tenth place. The track had dried up for the second final and the race could be started on slicks. Niklas was already running in seventh place when the rain started and became as heavy for race control to stop the race immediately. After the re-start on wet tyres, Niklas fought his way up into 10th place and drove the same lap times as the leader by the time he crossed the finishing line.
“This was a really great and exciting weekend”, said the 12-year-old. ““It gets better each time for I am really strong in tricky conditions, especially in the rain. It really is great to work with my team Forza Racing and the race material is simply superb. I look forward to the final race in Kerpen now and we will give everything again.”