Nurburgring 24 Hours: Max Verstappen masterclass helps team lead Mercedes 1-2

Motorsport photo A Max Verstappen masterclass has put his team in contention for a debut victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours as it leads a Mercedes 1-2 after almost nine hours of racing. The #3 Mercedes that Verstappen shares with Daniel Juncadella , Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer leads the #80 AMG ( Maxime Martin , Maro Engel , Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz ) by approximately a second. It has been a manic race so far with mixed weather conditions that are to be expected of the Nordschleife, but the Verstappen Racing Mercedes is going strong with the night stint underway.

The team started fourth but Juncadella took second on the opening lap, overtaking Christopher Haase (Scherer Audi) before polesitter Mirko Bortolotti suffered a puncture. It came after the Lamborghini was tagged by the #3 AMG at Turn 2, which Abt boss Martin Tomczyk labelled as “not acceptable”, but it was deemed as a racing incident. Things soon got even worse for Abt as its sister Huracan, which started second, was given a 32s penalty at the end of the opening hour after a jump start for Marco Mapelli.

That meant Juncadella finished his stint in third, having dropped from second to fourth due to troubles negating traffic, with Verstappen jumping aboard the Mercedes after 60 minutes. This is where Verstappen Racing truly put itself in victory contention as the four-time Formula 1 world champion remained patient behind traffic before launching attacks. #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer Amid overtaking cars which were yet to pit, having joined the track in 10th, he took net second from Christian Engelhart (Konrad Lamborghini) down the inside of Sabine Schmitz Kurve.

Thomas Preining in the Manthey Racing Porsche was next in Verstappen’s sights for the overall fight and after once again overtaking traffic, the Dutchman finally had his man just over two hours in. He did it by overtaking the 911, which was now being driven by Ayhancan Güven , down the inside of Turn 1 while rain began falling for the first time. That didn’t affect Verstappen though who was setting lap times that nobody could match, allowing him to finally end his two-hour stint with a 23s advantage over the Porsche.