Max Verstappen is well on course for a debut victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours as his team leads a dominant Mercedes 1-2 with just over seven hours remaining.

The #3 Mercedes, which Verstappen shares with Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer, holds a 14 second advantage over the sister Winward AMG driven by Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz.

Mercedes has been the dominant force in this manic race from around the sixth hour with both of its leading cars regularly swapping positions in the fight for the overall lead.

They are on identical strategies so it has been a straight-up scrap between its drivers, and the battle went up a level when Verstappen replaced Juncadella around the 11th hour.

The four-time Formula 1 world champion jumped aboard with a six-second deficit to Engel, but he very quickly gained to soon be on the tail of the race’s 2016 winner - the last time Mercedes took victory.

…and Verstappen goes around 😮‍💨 #24hNBR
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— ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (@24hNBR) May 17, 2026

Verstappen moved by on the final straight before Engel fought back, trying to edge past the Dutchman at Tiergarten while they both also attempted to negate traffic on the 12th hour.

But Verstappen held firm and while occupying the middle of the road, he and Engel banged wheels forcing the #80 Mercedes onto the grass on the right.

#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer

That pretty much ended the battle as Engel dropped a couple seconds back, before Verstappen continued to build his advantage ahead of Auer and Schiller jumping into both cars.

As things stand, Verstappen Racing will end Mercedes’ 10-year wait for another win at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, taking the German marque’s third all-time victory in the process.

The rest of the field is lagging far behind, with the third-placed Walkenhorst Aston Martin (Mattia Drudi, Felipe Laser, Christian Krognes and Nicki Thiim) approximately five minutes off the top two.

Rowe Racing BMW (Dan Harper, Max Hesse, Sheldon Van Der Linde and Dries Vanthoor) and Schubert BMW (Connor de Phillippi, Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Neil Verhagen) round out the top five.

Nurburgring 24 Hours: Max Verstappen puts Mercedes in lead after masterclass stint

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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

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.

“Initially I was a bit stuck in traffic,” said Verstappen, “so it was a bit difficult to clear the cars. But once I cleared a few of them and then the weather kicked in with a few laps of slippery conditions, that's I think where we made a difference.

“And then the car was good. Trying to stay out of trouble, but at the same time you have to push and you have to try and be on the limit, which is always, I think, a difficult compromise to find, but it worked out fine.”

His efforts were slightly unravelled though in the next stint, as Gounon simply struggled for pace with Estre (in for Guven) taking 20 minutes to cut the gap to six seconds.

Suddenly, however, the 2024 World Endurance Championship champion encountered an oil spill at Brunnchen which caused the Porsche to spin out almost four hours into the contest.

Manthey Porsche

Although the initial assumption was that Verstappen Racing now once again held a huge advantage, others soon closed on Gounon who was overtaken by three cars in overall contention.

Those were Christian Krognes (Walkenhorst Aston Martin), Schiller and Connor de Phillippi (Schubert BMW) amid a stint the 31-year-old had called "difficult" with rain falling harder.

Thankfully for Verstappen Racing though it managed to re-overtake the Aston and BMW through the pitstops, before Gounon’s co-driver Auer overtook Schiller to give the #3 Mercedes the overall lead again.

But that didn’t last for very long as Stolz, in for Schiller, moved past Auer at the end of the seventh hour though was then overtaken by Juncadella midway through the ninth hour. 

In third is currently the Walkenhorst Aston Martin being driven by Nicki Thiim, while Jens Klingmann (Schubert BMW) and Max Hesse (Rowe BMW) complete the top five. 

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Max Verstappen has reacted to his opening two days of the Nurburgring 24 Hours weekend amid leaving rivals in awe of the four-time Formula 1 world champion.

The 28-year-old is making his debut at the manic event, driving a Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Lucas Auer, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon.

Thursday saw Verstappen set the third-quickest lap time with an 8m18.539s, before Friday qualifying where the #3 Mercedes took fourth behind a Lamborghini 1-2 and an Audi in third.

Qualifying for the top category is split across three sessions - TQ1, 2 and 3 - with teams nominating a different driver for each outing and Auer was first out in the Verstappen Mercedes.

The DTM star finished fifth to ensure progression into TQ2, which saw Verstappen jump in the AMG needing a top seven lap time for TQ3.

He just about did that with sixth, surviving a late scare as the Dutchman gradually dropped to that position from first to finish the session 1.129s off the pace-setting Nick Yelloly Audi.

#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen, Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Lucas Auer

But all Verstappen cared about was progression, whether it was on top or in seventh, as it paved the way for Juncadella to then take fourth on the grid for Saturday’s race start.

“I felt comfortable in the car because we were targeting to get to the top qualifying three, which of course is not easy with the competition out there," said Verstappen.

“It's super tough, a lot of fast cars around, but we just managed to sneak in. So the final lap was just good enough and it was nice.

“Luckily it was dry, the car felt all right and we managed to sneak in. So that was the target and yeah yesterday, a lot of changing conditions and for me the first time in the night.

Nurburgring 24 Hours: Verstappen Racing end Thursday in third after rain-affected second session

“Probably the worst possible conditions with the rain, the fog coming in. But at least I got a good first idea of what to expect potentially in the race as well. So that was good.”

This race has long been on Verstappen’s radar due to the gap between the Miami Grand Prix and Canada, which takes place between 22-24 May, and he has taken it as seriously as he could have, entering up to five races at the Nordschleife in preparation.

#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO: Max Verstappen

“I think we honestly prepared as well as we could as a team, also over the last few races,” Verstappen added. “And now this weekend, it's a really professional group of people putting their heart and soul into everything. So we hope to be able to have a good result.”

It is such preparation that has left the rest of the grid with admiration for the F1 star, whose presence has taken the event to a new level with tickets quickly selling out.

“It's great having him here,” said Marco Mapelli, who took second in TQ3 aboard the Team Abt Lamborghini Huracan. “How many people are coming compared to the past, it's just a plus. It's just a plus on everything. It's a big respect for this kind of talent.

“It's completely far away from his normal world, but it's nice to see his commitment on this job, his way to approach testing and so on. It means that he's having fun, but he knows that to perform he needs to commit a lot.

“It shows how the level is that you cannot just arrive and bang, make the car first or whatever. You need to be prepared.”

Those thoughts were shared by polesitter Luca Engstler, who reckons it shows the level GT racing is now at especially when the 161-car entry list is completely stacked.

Luca Engstler

Away from Verstappen, there are drivers like the 2024 World Endurance Championship champion Kevin Estre, reigning DTM champion Ayhancan Guven and F1 podium sitter Timo Glock.

Engstler said: “He's definitely someone that I'm looking up to and someone that I can learn from a lot. He's having a massive passion, like a lot of the drivers here, and I think that's why we can really identify ourselves with him.

“It just shows that he knows what we are doing here. I think he never expected to pitch up, rock up FP1 and then send it on pole. He knew that it's a very specific car, it's a very specific race that we're doing here.

“If you see the way he was preparing, it just showed that he's taking it seriously and that's just great to see.”

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