Harry Crawley headed into his maiden European karting outing with the aim of getting his name out there on the international stage – and after out-pacing the reigning world champion and going on to battle doggedly back from a post-qualifying blow that left him at the very bottom of the order to damn near reach the podium on race day, he did that and a whole lot more besides.

The annual Euro Max Rotax Winter Cup represents a kind of pre-season warm-up for the hotly-fought Euro Max Challenge – held across France, Germany, Austria and Belgium – and the 2010 edition, at Malaga in Spain, brought together the indisputable crème de la crème of global Junior Max class talent from a staggering 18 different countries worldwide. Daunting, or what?

Not only that, but Harry also had to get to grips with both the 1.6km Circuito Campillos – upon which he had never so much as set eyes before the weekend, and the longest track the young Dartford star had ever raced at, necessitating both a physical and mental adjustment – and the different tyres used in Europe, as well as finding himself forced to contend with a distinctly mixed bag of weather that veered dramatically from sunny to downright torrential.

“I was hoping just to get a good result to set me up well for Euro Max,” reflected the Hawley-based speed demon, “and I think we were able to prove that we’re going to do well. It was an opportunity to get recognised and get my name out there a bit.

“The tyres feel a lot slippier, and are especially different in the wet. The kart slides around a lot more on them, which means you have to drive a lot smoother or you will wear them out too quickly – as we found out on the test day! The driving style in Europe is very different to in Britain too, but once you’re out there you just have to adapt to it, and it came pretty naturally to be honest.

“Campillos is the best track I’ve ever driven! It’s really quick and challenging, and hard to get right – one mistake can cost you loads of time, and you can lose as much as half a second if you muck up just a single corner. It was a lot to take on-board to begin with, but I just got my head down and got on with it really and it only took around three sessions to get used to it.

“Before long we had mastered the circuit and were really fast – we were on the pace by the end of practice. We were really quick straight out-of-the-box in the wet, in fact, thanks to a good engine and good lines – and you can go even harder into the corners in the wet than you do in the dry.”

Be that as it may, qualifying took place on a dry track – and still Harry was devastatingly swift, enough to annex second spot on the starting grid out of the 41 competitors present, a scant seven hundredths shy of the benchmark and ahead of the defending world champion.

That joy, however, would sadly prove to be short-lived, as after his Evolution Racing kart weighed in at just 500g underweight, his time was disallowed and the 13-year-old was relegated to the rear of the grid for each of his three 21-strong heat races – leaving him on the back foot to say the least. To his immense credit, Harry simply dug even deeper still and kept on fighting.

“We were really quick, and it was certainly pleasing to be on the same pace as the world champion and to beat him in qualifying,” he acknowledged. “That was a definite high point of the weekend! I was fairly confident of being inside the top ten, but I hadn’t expected to be in the top three – I was chuffed to bits with that. I think the whole meeting would have been different without the penalty, though; I reckon we would have been up there fighting for the win.

“There were quite a lot of crashes in the first two corners in all of the heats, which I had to try to avoid, and that also allowed the leading runners to get away. It was really hard work to come through again and catch them back up – especially as I only had six laps each time to try to do so! There are quite a lot of overtaking opportunities around the track, but I wouldn’t say it was easy to overtake – because it certainly wasn’t.

“I had to get on with it really quickly. With so few laps I really had to make every move count, and it was just non-stop! Considering where I had to start, I think I did the best I could, and though we struggled a bit for speed in the first two heats in the wet, in heat three in the dry the following day we were right on the leading pace.”

Fifth, seventh and eighth-place finishes secured Harry ninth position in the intermediate rankings – and his superb recovery was enough to haul him right back into the reckoning for glory. Very much in with a shot once more, the Wilmington Grammar School for Boys pupil was determined to have his say.

“I was hoping to get up there for the grand final,” he revealed of his pre-final objective, “as that would have put us in contention to win. I got a good start to move up to fourth, and I was catching the leaders to begin with, but I think we had gone a bit too low on the tyre pressures. That meant it took a while for the kart to come on and I ultimately had to settle for fifth, which I was still fairly satisfied with in the circumstances.

“I got another good start up to second in the grand final, but I was knocked wide in one of the bottom hairpins, and then coming up to the first corner I got hit again which caused me to fall down to tenth. I was able to fight my way back through to fifth and was catching fourth, but unfortunately the kart just came on too late.

“If it had come on a little earlier I’m pretty sure I could have been in the top three, but I was still pretty happy considering it was only my first real race meeting in Europe and the bad luck we’d had in qualifying. I was pleased with myself for having come through from 41st to fifth.”

Justifiably so – and by setting a better fastest lap time than all four of the drivers who took the chequered flag ahead of him, Harry demonstrated that there is plenty more still to come, a sobering thought for his rivals indeed. As a learning weekend it was a hugely successful one, and the outcome has left Kent’s budding F1 hope feeling buoyed and with his tail up ahead of the remainder of the Euro Max campaign.

“I learned a lot,” he concluded, “and I know more what to expect now from the other drivers out there. I know how aggressive the racing is, and how high the standard of driving is in Europe. I want to try to repeat my top five finish in the overall championship, and the key will be to stay consistent all the way through – and just to go out there, enjoy it and have some fun!”

And after that, well, winning would just be the icing on the cake...