Strong Margutti-performance by Niklas Krütten
Trier resident Niklas Krütten is still on the rise and showed a strong performance at the 26th Andrea Margutti Trophy in Lonato (Italy). In the KF junior field he was able to hold his ground against his top-class competition and finished on sixth place during qualifying. Unfortunately he then didn’t have the necessary ounce of luck during the finale.
Only a week after the WSK Super Masters Series in Castelletto, Niklas Krütten started at his next race. The 26th Andrea Margutti Trophy took place on the South Garda Circuit in Lonato. The race takes place every year in honor of Andrea Margutti who died in 1989 and is one of the most venerable races in the world. At this year’s event, 43 drivers from 14 nations started in Niklas’ class.
Despite the strong competition, the 12-year-old youngster was very confident prior to the start of the race: “My team and I have worked a lot during the past weeks and I’m looking forward to the start. I still know the track well from the Winter Cup.”
He proved this during qualifying already, when Niklas achieved an impressive sixth starting position and was the fastest driver from Germany. He was able to tie in with this during the following heats. He highlighted his performance by gaining fifth place at the first heat and he was also very fast during the second. Unfortunately he was stopped due to a collision and fell back to 19th place on the overall list of rankings. “Things didn’t go perfectly during the second heat. First I got blocked during the start and then I got heckled by an opponent”, the British Forza Racing Team’s driver explained.
Niklas still entered the finale due to his 19th place and showed a great catching-up race during the pre-finale. He came close to the leading drivers during the first laps and was already on eighth place. When he tried to drive past the seventh driver it came to a collision though. “My opponent hit me on purpose”, grumbled Niklas. That wasn’t all though: In addition to the falling out he ended up with a bent chassis and had only 45 minutes until the next race. His team did an awesome job though – they worked nonstop to give the youngster a new chassis.
Niklas thanked them with a great race and drove from the end of the field through the fierce midfield up to 23rd position. “Even more would have been possible, but the same opponent from the pre-finale drove into me without braking and I got turned around. Even though I was against the new spoilers in the beginning, after their withholding we have to witness a lot of hard driving styles again. Ten-seconds-penalties are not enough to stop unfair behavior”, Niklas said frustratedly.
“Aside from the incidents during the races I’m very content. There has been a definite increase in performance. I was the fastest German driver throughout the entire weekend and would have landed among the top ten under normal circumstances. Big thanks to my team for their extraordinary job and congratulations on his victory to my team mate Kush Maini”, the youngster summed up.
Niklas is going to attend his next race one week after Easter. The third event of the WSK Super Masters Series is going to take place in South-Italian La Conca.