At the FIA Kart World Championship in Franciacorta, Italy, the highlight of the season for Mathilda Paatz from Cologne, the German young talent was unable to achieve a satisfactory finish despite good performances. The 15-year-old, who had travelled to the event with great expectations, had to cope with an unintentional retirement on the first day, which abruptly ended her dream of reaching the final. On the second day, an accident at the start and an engine failure prevented Paatz from making it to the Superheats and caused her great disappointment. Nevertheless, the driver from DPK-Racing, the junior team of Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, was able to show her potential over the course of the weekend.
After the satisfactory practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, things got serious in the subsequent qualifying. Although Mathilda Paatz didn't manage a perfect lap, the ADAC Sports Foundation protégé finished in 68th place out of 111 participants, putting her in a solid midfield position. "I could certainly have been one or two tenths of a second faster and thus started a few positions further ahead, but the starting situation for the heats was still very promising," said Paatz self-critically afterwards.
In the heats, the aim was to maintain a position in the top 72 to secure a place for the targeted Superheats. However, the weekend took a disappointing course: Two accidents and a blown engine threw Paatz far behind in three of the six heats. With a 13th place in the last heat, the sponsored driver from the German Sport Driver's Association once again proved her potential, but in the overall classification of the heats, the 15-year-old from Cologne dropped back to 81st place as a result of the retirements. Participation in the Superheat was therefore no longer possible.
"Of course I am disappointed that my weekend was ruined by the incidents that were not my fault," Paatz was crestfallen. "The good individual result, with a 13th place in the last heat, showed that without the failures a place in the safe midfield would have been possible. Unfortunately, it was already clear after qualifying that I would not have made it into the top 36 participants* for the final, but the Superheats were a realistic goal. Congratulations to my team mate Kirill Kutskov, who was crowned World Champion this year. This also shows what my team DPK-Racing was capable of. This end of the season is a great pity, but unfortunately that's part of motorsport."
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