Charles won this title by a large margin even though Max was considered the favorite since he won the year before in KF3.
Round I at Sarno was running smoothly for Max in all sessions until he spun in the rainy final, which gave Charles the win in the race and the lead in the drivers’ standings as Max finished P7 (a win in the pre final race is worth 35 points while in the final 50).
“At the start of the final I went behind Verstappen and started to pressure him. When Max made a mistake, I went into the lead and never looked back.” Charles, 2012, via Art Grand Prix
I’m not so sure about that, Charles, as Max spun while you were third in the race… Could he really feel the ~pressure~ from where he was?
Round II at Val d’Argenton was where the famous interview took place.
We do not have footage of their fight on track as it happened in one of the qualifying heats. Both drivers were disqualified and received 26 penalty points meaning that in the pre final race Max would start from P10 and Charles from P5 (Max collected a few more penalties in other heats). What we do have is the context told by their perspective:
“In the last qualifying heat it started to rain. I was in the lead and Leclerc was close behind me. I drove a bit defensive, that’s part of it. He pushed me once, which I looked back and gestured to him to stop because it didn’t make any sense anyway. Then he pushed me all the way straight ahead and took over the lead. The corner after that, I pushed him and took back the lead. When I crossed the finish line and won the heat, he pushed me off the track. You’d think he’d get the penalty for starting and pushing me off the track even after the race. We went to the stewards and they decided we were both disqualified. I think that’s unfair.” Max, 2012, via Verstappen.nl translated with DeepL
“I was second and he was always closing the door. I pushed him a little bit to overtake, as they do in karting, but at the next corner he hit me and sent me out. I lost 10 positions, climbed back up to 2nd, and after the checkered flag I joined him to protest. But he got distracted, ended up in the grass, in a puddle so deep that only his helmet was sticking out. He was furious.” Charles, 2017, via La Gazzetta Dello Sport translated with DeepL
From there on everything that could go wrong for Max did go wrong. At the start of the pre final race he got hit from behind and lost control of the kart ending up in the gravel. Max’s race was over and he would start the final from P31, while Charles won the pre final and would be P1 for the final, which he would eventually win. Max was running P15 when he had to retire due to an incident with another driver.
In this interview after the final, Max is mentioned as one of the most experienced drivers but Charles feels the need to disagree: “Everyone has more experience than me except Verstappen…”
At La Conca, Round III, Max and his team could not find a good setup for the weekend. Failing to bring the fight to Charles, he was no longer a contender.
At Zuera, Round IV, Max switched his CRG kart to Zanardi/Parilla kart and used the weekend to get a handle of the new equipment, meantime Charles went to win the final race of the championship.
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