De Vries Commences WSK Campaign
press release
The debut of the WSK Euro Series in Sarno (Italy) also marked the beginning of one of the two main championships in Nyck De Vries' racing calendar 2011. The Dutch kartman, who was racing in the KF1 category, constantly improved his performances on the Sarno circuit and crossed the finish line of the first final as winner. The rain that came on Sunday also brought a few race mishaps with it. The driver of the Zanardi-Parilla n°1 kart suffered the consequence of this situation twice and had to content himself with a 5th place in the second final.
It is often said that great champions are made from adversity. This is exactly what happened near Naples, during this mid-March weekend, with a Nyck De Vries in top form despite a group of very aggressive rivals! "The World Championship as well as the WSK Euro Series are going to be very close and hard fought in KF1 this season", said the Dutch young driver as first thing. "There are many young drivers who are very hard to beat and this is really exciting".
With timed qualifying, the Chiesa Corse driver soon began to feel at ease. "I set the second best lap time in the first session. But for the Super Pole, where the 10 best drivers race against each other, I chose to drive all alone, while others remained together to take advantage of drafting. So I fell down to 6th place".
Nyck was 5th twice in the heats, without being really satisfied with his technical choices. But then, once again, the driver and his team made a perfect analysis of the situation and adjusted all the parameters to conditions. "The final race went as I had hoped. There were some intense fights on the track, my equipment kept improving lap after lap and I was able to make a difference. It's a pity that Saturday's first final does not give as many points as Sunday's, but I was happy I could start my KF1 season like this".
On Sunday, Nyck had the firm intention of repeating his excellent performance, even more so that he knew he could still improve his performance level. He proved it by winning the first heat. Unfortunately, the rest of the race had a bitter taste for 2010 World Champion. It is true that the rain started to fall and changed grip conditions, but that is not the only reason... "In the pack, there are too many drivers who just push to overtake and who think that a race is won at the start. I began losing places in the second heat because of that. In the final race, I took a good start and was third when I was bumped into at the back while I was braking, on the second bend. Then I found myself 10th on the first lap. Instead of a fight for victory, as I thought I could do after my best lap time in race, it became a catch up race". At the wheel of his Zanardi-Parilla, Nyck was forced to content himself with a 5th place. But there he is, 2nd in the Championship anyway, and determined to conquer the WSK Euro Series, as he has already done twice in KF3...
