Max visits European karting championship in Genk

Published on 12 July 2015 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen, 2013 European Karting Champion in the KF and KZ and also World Champion in KZ, visited his home track in the Belgian Genk last weekend. The place that saw him cover a lot of miles and where Sunday the 2015 Champions in the CIK-FIA European Championship were crowned.

“Here is where I started karting and where I was also very successful”, Max tells us from the Horensbergdam circuit. “So being able to return to Genk in between my Formula 1-races is always great fun.” Walking around anonymously isn’t likely anymore. “There are more people watching me, but I always try to be myself and just to act normal, just like when I was walking around here two years ago.”

Max is there together with his father Jos, but also mother Sophie and sister Victoria are present. They are there to closely watch the performance of the Pex family. For years, Max and Jos traveled the world with the Pex’ to all the karting circuits to partake in the international races. These days, Jorrit Pex is racing in the KZ, the highest karting class, while Stan Pex races in the KZ2.

Stan performed very well in the pre final in mixed weather conditions and won it after a strong performance. In the final run, on a dry track, Stan had a nice fight with Alexander Schmitz, who eventually won the race. Finishing third was Joel Johansson, who also grabbed the European KZ2-title

In the top class, the KZ, Jorrit was magnificent in the pre final, which was just able to be driven on slicks. The Dutchman was 59 thousandths quicker than Marco Ardigo when the flag dropped. In the final run, Jorrit was not able to maintain his lead and finished sixth, but as Rick Dreezen and Flavio Camponeschi were given time penalties, Jorrit classified fourth. Jeremy Iglesias won the final run, but it was the Italian Camponeschi who, despite his time penalty, was crowned the 2015 European KZ-Champion.

Back to Max. How would you grade yourself after your first nine Grands Prix? “A seven or a eight. There is always room for improvement, so I will never give myself a ten. I always want to do better than others and I will always work to achieve that." With a world title as the target? “Of course. I reached my first goal and that is my next goal.” Is there a time frame? “No, not at all. You also need a little bit of luck to be in the right team at the right time. We’ll see what the future brings. For now, I am fine at Scuderia Toro Rosso, where I can also learn a lot. So I am taking my time for that.”