Verstappen was always a winner, says kart track owner

Record ID: 1651091

  • Title: Verstappen was always a winner, says kart track owner
  • Date: 13th December 2021
  • Summary: LEMMENS WALKING PAST DRONE PICTURE OF HIS CIRCUIT (SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF KARTING CIRCUIT "KARTING GENK", PAUL LEMMENS, ON FORMULA ONE CHAMPION MAX VERSTAPPEN, SAYING: "Each day off, he was here for training and testing and set up the chassis and testing engines and everything." VARIOUS OF KARTS IN GARAGE RACING SUITS ON HANGERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF KARTIN
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2021 17:09
  • Keywords: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Belgium Camping Champion Debut Formula One championship Genk Kart Karting Limburg Max Verstappen Netherlands Reaction Red Bull Youth driver
  • Location: GENK, BELGIUM
  • City: GENK, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Europe,Motor Racing,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA005F7VD7WF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Formula One world champion Max Verstappen stood out even in infancy as a serial winner, the owner of the Belgian kart track where the Dutch driver first honed his racing skills said on Monday (December 13).
    Paul Lemmens, whose Karting Genk circuit is known as the 'Home of Champions', recalled first meeting the four-year-old Verstappen when father and former F1 racer Jos brought him along to test a baby kart.
    "It was amazing to see because his helmet was bigger than himself," he told Reuters television a day after Red Bull's 24-year-old Verstappen won the title nL1N2SX080 in Abu Dhabi.
    "The father Jos was racing also in my team and for that he started here. He lived also in Belgium about 15km from here so each weekend or each day they had off they were on track with Max."
    Lemmens said Max's talents were soon apparent.
    "He did many, many races here, and most of them he won easily," Lemmens added.
    "He did his first race and he won immediately ... from then on you can see he had an extreme talent. Then the next race he won also. I don't think he lost one race -- only when his engine was broken or something like that.
    "The other competitors, when they started here and they knew Max was here, they knew they were going for second place," said Lemmens.
    The international circuit, which has hosted the karting world championships, attracts plenty of youngsters as well as some established drivers.
    Lemmens said seven times world champion Michael Schumacher would come for practice even as a Formula One driver while Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen also raced there on the way up.
    (Production: Bart Biesemans, Clement Rossignol)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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