The three-seconds-a-lap on the leading trio is the more damning number, though. Those three were presumably the quickest amateurs, in the same karts, running clean air with a defensive shortcut. And he still took three seconds a lap out of them. On a short kart circuit that's an enormous margin — it's not one big mistake by them, it's a couple of tenths per corner, every corner, lap after lap. Braking point, minimum speed, getting back to throttle. Consistency at the limit is the thing amateurs simply can't replicate, and equal machinery exposes it completely.