Freaky Weather ruins CIK-FIA European Round for Niklas Krütten at Le Mans
The third championship round of the CIK-FIA European Championship was overshadowed by permanent freaky weather. The Le Mans International Karting Circuit, imbedded in the middle of the famous track of the 24-hour-race kept changing its face and made Set-up changes and races mostly a gamble. A mistake during qualifying put the young Kart driver Niklas Krütten in the back part of the field. Despite missing the entrance into the Final, the 14-year-old was once again one of the fastest drivers and impressed with impressive comebacks.
197 drivers from 34 nations were facing the complicated conditions in the North-West of France last weekend. The permanent change between rain and partly-dry patches oF the race track made the Set-up work and strategy difficult. The 14-year-old German Niklas Krütten was already affected in qualifying on Friday. Whilst on slicks, he went off the slippery track into the dirt. All chances to improve his overall starting position of P56 were hindered by poor visibility and dirty tyres.
The weather chaos remained unchanged on Saturday. Niklas was still able to make his potential shine through and impressed with consistently fast lap times and strong comebacks in all track conditions in the pre-races. Due to an unexpected drying track in the second Heat and a penalty given due to a damaged front bumper, which was not his fault, he was put back once again and had to write-off the Final entry already on Saturday evening.
But the young German would not give up and put everything into the last race on Sunday morning. In only 11 laps, he fought his way up into seventh place coming from P16 on the grid and marked the fastest laptime of the race. With this performance, he put his mark onto the championship weekend and proofed once again, that he currently is one of the fastest guys racing in a Senior-Kart on the international karting scene.
“The messed-up qualifying upset our entire plans this weekend”, says Niklas after the race. “Our speed was good enough in all conditions to reach a top position in the Final. But once you start from the back and the weather is not playing into your hands, then it really is just a gamble. The lap times and positions, which we were able to make up, showed, that we can compete right at the front this year.”
Niklas will now head into a well-deserved holiday and will return to racing in three weeks for the fourth round of the CIK-FIA European Championship at the Mika Salo Circuit in Finland, where he already absolved a successful few test days.